The strength of the scientific process is its immunity from human frailties. The built-in error correction and robustness of principles protect and nurture truth, despite both intended and unintended errors and naivety. What it doesn't secure is understanding of how the scientific sausage is made. Here, a scientific journey revolving around a single protein that spans nearly 35 years is used to illustrate the twists and turns that can accompany any scientific path. Lessons learned from such exploration speak to the need for story-telling in communicating scientific meaning - and the effectiveness of this will influence future investment and understanding of the scientific endeavor.
Keywords: fundamental science; protein kinase; protéine kinase; science fondamentale; signal transduction; transduction de signaux.