Last week, I spent every morning attending a High Pressure Safety Course, which amounted to the sole conclusion “thou shalt aim not to blow up thyself or thy neighbour.” This week, there was a general safety lecture, which could be summed up as “use common sense, and for goodness’ sake, WEAR SAFETY SPECS.”
Yesterday afternoon, I met with my supervisors to discuss how best to go about my lab research, and how it will involve EPR, XPS, NMR, SEM and a variety of other acronyms, which all sounds marvellously complicated but I’m sure it’ll be alright in the end. Even though the difference between my previous experimental experiments and my current exploits is like the difference between following Delia’s tried-and-tested recipe to create a Victoria Sponge and being told to go away and make a three course meal from scratch with ingredients and methods that haven’t been used ever before, aiming to find a way to make it taste nice at the end, despite not knowing what you’re cooking.
I'm terrified, but that's beside the point.
On the jukebox: Queen & David Bowie ~ Under Pressure
NMR...nuclear magnetic resonance? SEM is scanning electron microscope, XPS and EPR?
ReplyDeleteYou'll do great. Have some sunshine on me =)
I think it is entirely possbible to be intellectual clever but socially and generally a 'bit special'. Fact I'd say the most intellectually clever always put milk in the cupboard and plates in the washing machine :p
ReplyDeleteAnd start the washing machine without powder in it? D'oh.
ReplyDeleteX-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance, respectively. Google is my friend.
I console myself with the fact that I was too busy wondering about the chemical composition of the glue to notice it sticking to my fingers. Thank frig for renewable skin sources, eh!?
hehe, 'a bit special'. Yes, that would be about it. P was always calling me 'special' but then I am teh only person in the history of hte world (probably) to have ever stood on tiptoes to turn off a lightswitch with her chin whilst holding a PFW (poncy flower-water i.e. herbal tea) and being on the phone and somehow manage to lose balance, fail completely, and land up on the floor with her legs round her ears and tea all over the place, giggling like an idiot. Despite all this I manage to make a fairly passable stab at seeming quite bright.
ReplyDeleteIn other news, good luck, and you'll be absolutely fine :) *hugs* xxx
In retrospect, it wasn't fine, it didn't get easier and that's without even involving half the acronyms mentioned, but in the end, the result was alright.
ReplyDeleteI didn't manage to make a deliciously impressive three course meal, I burnt the starter and only then did I discover that I'd actually forgotten to add the main ingredient, or at least there wasn't enough of it to be seen or tasted. And that part took so long I didn't get round to the other courses. Whoops. Okay, so science went hungry at the dinner party, but the company was sparkling, the alcohol readily available and the evening full of so much fun otherwise that I don't mind that there was no food to be eaten and in the end, it didn't really matter, anyway.