Just then, Professor Hammond walked by, holding a printed .log file. He glanced at her screen.

Next came the : 2009. Title : Gaussian 09, Revision D.01. Publisher : Gaussian, Inc. City : Wallingford, CT.

Alena rubbed her eyes. “I’ve been awake for 36 hours,” she whispered.

Dr. Alena Chen had been staring at the same line of output for three hours. Her computational chemistry project—modeling the electron transfer dynamics of a novel organic photovoltaic—was complete. The numbers were beautiful. The convergence was perfect. But now, she faced her true nemesis: The References Section .

And deep within EndNote’s database, the ghost of Gaussian 09 smiled, knowing that tomorrow, someone else would forget to change the output style and begin the cycle anew.