Home in the lab

I feel much more like myself again now that I have a lab to go to.

If I'd heard myself say that three years ago, I'd be totally mystified. Hell, or even a year or two ago. It's funny how we settle into new aspects of our personality.

The undergrad who's been helping out on this project has been showing me around and teaching me some of the basics. I feel kind of like a fake; he's probably older than I am and has more lab experience. But shh--don't tell him. I think he thinks I'm at least a few years older than I am.

Later today I get to learn to use the second-most complicated & expensive piece of equipment I'll be using in my labwork--the melt mixer. I have to wear a lab coat for this process, something I haven't done before. Wacky. Then next week I get trained on the SEM, which, honestly, was all I ever wanted out of a graduate program. (If you're unfamiliar with scanning electron microscopy, just scroll down and look at the kinds of images it gets and I think you might understand why I am so in love with this instrument.)

So, yeah, it's good to be here, and good to be doing science again. I've been doing a lot of reading, too, so I understand more about the motivation for the project and what needs to be done to improve what we've already done. It's probably not world-changing, but it is industry-changing, and it's just an interesting puzzle to work on for at least a year.

Oh, work, I love you. I'm going back to you now.