Would you like to be the cube designer? It's a reliable gig and a fascinating window on the scientific community. It's complex, high-touch, long-haul, and as it stands not terribly lucrative: a living in most places but not tech money. Getting started could be pretty quick for the right person, getting good takes interest and experience.
This is the 25th year of CrystalProteins, thousands of projects, mainly proteins but also all sorts of other science. It's mostly just me. I don't do any marketing, the product speaks for itself and I've never wanted to scale past what one person can do. It's design only, I work in partnership with laser glass manufacturer Precision Crystal. In the last 10 years, average net per year was $57K.
What's required? General literacy and love for science. Solid coding, the level where if you need to whip something up in a new language you can do it by sense of smell. 3D design. Willingness to learn about structural biology and its imaging techniques. A beefy desktop computer. A Rhinoceros license. The tenacity of the cockroach. Desire to belong in the ancient and noble (but not quite artistic) tradition of scientific illustration.
You can pick up the biology, if you've got a bit of a knack you can pick up the 3D side. You can't learn to code for this project. AI does not have reliable knowledge about this very specialized field.
It's a customer service gig. There's a lot of emailing with scientists and their administrative colleagues, and one must be courteous, straightforward, respectful of their time and needs. They're great customers! They truly love the product and are generally happy to work with me, and I've never once been stiffed on payment. However when it's time to write an awkward email or pick up the phone, you're doing it.
As it stands it's a part-time job, but not compatible with a 9-to-5 because it's bursty. Perhaps it could grow. I've never felt a limit to demand, only to my willingness to do more. Someone with domain knowledge in molecular biology, or professional programming chops, or ability to manage a multi-person business, might take this much farther than I have.
I'd love to see it continue, and I'll scrub in for the transition. I've worked with an assistant in the past (tip o' the hat to Ray!) and it was complicated but possible to teach the job. I can transfer knowledge about my workflow, how people look at proteins, how to lay out a nice cube, this hairball of a code base, how I handle communications. There's an archive of every project ever, most customers are regulars and many projects are repeats.
Drop a line if you might be interested.
— Bathsheba, June 2026
