The film "NATURALLY OBSESSED: the making of a scientist," co-produced and co-directed Dr. Richard Rifkind and his wife Carole was selected by the National Academy of Sciences as the best film communication of science for 2010. Dr. Rifkind was formerly director of research and Chairman of the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City, where he also was responsible for graduate student education. Long concerned with public understanding of science, upon his retirement from SKI, Rifkind turned to filmmaking in order to illuminate the doing of science for scientists and non-scientists alike.

The film, a one-hour documentary opens a view on the training of young scientists and their role in the process of discovery. Shot over three years’ time in the molecular biology laboratory of Dr. Lawrence Shapiro of the Columbia University Medical Center, the film chronicles how the tool of X-ray crystallography enables the discovery of the workings of the AMPK protein molecule, revealing a new path towards the treatment of diabetes and obesity.

The focus of the film, however, is not so much on the science itself than on the human side of doing science. Following the emotional ups and downs of three graduate students who are being guided by their professor and laboratory head along the challenging and uncertain journey to the PhD degree, the film highlights the qualities that go into the making of a scientist—such as persistence, skill in asking the right questions, mastering the needed technology, mentoring and being mentored, collaborating, facing competition.

One film viewer commented:"This was fun, compelling, heartening ... to watch brilliance, genius, suffering, depression, anger, frustration etc., those sweet scientific souls gifted with obsession."