I have a very different job. Different from any of my friends, anyway. I work in a lab. It’s a great job but it’s difficult to explain to people. When they ask what I do I usually try to give as little information as possible because the longer I go on the more weird I sound. Telling someone “I study iron metabolism in yeast” puts me a step below accountants on the nerd scale. Writing this on the internet isn’t exactly a good way to keep it a secret, but here I can include some pictures that make it look more interesting, maybe. So, for those who are interested, here is what I do on a day-to-day basis.
Macrophages with dyed lysosomes. (These are cells.)
Eppendorph tubes. This is where most of the reactions happen. Boom.
My bench. Very exciting.
This is Jeremy, my fish. He loves sunshine and food.
So, there you have it--a small taste of the daily routine of the yeast geneticist. Cool...right?
You know I dig it. I think people have a horrible (and I mean HORRIBLE) impression of what lab work is really like because of our common experience in public school chemistry/biology labs. You know, bad smells like sulphur and formaldehyde? Plus, litmus strips, dead frogs, and ancient/broken test tubes. No one really pictures an iMac or a fish named Jeremy sitting on the desk when they think of the lab. So, I'm glad you took some pictures to remind us all that lab work is modern and cool. Say, is that a third eye on Jeremy's head??? -K
ReplyDeletewhat a nerd!!
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, your fish and I have a lot in common. Plus, I have a brother named Jeremy. He's not real aquatic, but I think he'd share said interests, as well.
ReplyDelete