I have an exam on Friday and I haven't even touched the material that I am supposed to know by then. However, I am engrossed in Kate Remembered. I cannot help but admire Katharine Hepburn, she blazed quite a few trails in her day.
I had a lazy day. I took care of chores around the house and mailed a 'Congrats for doing so well on your midterm' little gift to my Mom. When I finally did get to work this afternoon, students swarmed into my office. Technically speaking, I am only supposed to help them with the questions they have relating to the lectures. Everyone that wanted to see me today had questions relating to his or her lab work. I fumbled through some of their questions before calling my friend Grant down to help. I feel so ignorant sometimes. As a graduate student in physics, I should be able to answer whatever questions they might have. The problem tonight was that I had not touched the topic that they were studying since I took general physics five years ago. I don't remember all of the little intracacies of the problems. So I have one more thing added to my overflowing plate of work, learn all of the problems relating to the labs so I'll be able to tutor the information efficiently.
After I finished with work, I was getting ready to head out for the evening to study when Grant asked me to stick around in the lab for a bit. He always works better when someone else is around. So I did. I offered him opinions and fixed his problems when needed. Then our acquaintance August showed up. I was inspecting Grant's job of sealing quartz tubes when August appeared so we allowed him in the back of the lab. He wanted to know what everything was and what everything did. I gave him a quick run down of all of the machines and then walked back to my desk. He doesn't need to know everything about our lab, unless he works in our lab. He was obsessed with the new calorimeter that we have. It was just taken out of the box this week and we haven't even used it yet. He declared that he would have set it up, used it, and broken it twice by now. I informed him that we will, in fact, all know everything there is to know about the machine in a matter of weeks. That wasn't good enough for him. He couldn't understand how we were just letting a machine sit there unused. I tried to reason with him by explaining that it is a $30,000 machine, we want read the manuals and be able to work it properly. He informed me that since he has been in his lab, he has broken their AFM at least twice while trying to force it to do things it should be able to do. The AFM is the only piece of equipment that his lab owns. I cannot imagine how much research time that they are losing because it had to be sent back to the manufactorer. I would be so incredibly angry with him if he was sidetracking my research by pushing/surpassing the limits of the machines that I need on a daily basis. He seemed to think my comments were meant in jest, Grant had to inform him otherwise. I abruptly concluded my discussion with August by telling him to never transfer to my lab.
I have lucked out to have amazing men in my lab. Even if our major professor jokes that I am the butchest one in the lab, I am still thankful that I have such sensitive and intelligent men to work with. Not many women are as lucky as I am. I wonder how the dynamics of our work lives will change when one or more of us wants to get married or start a family...
I had a lazy day. I took care of chores around the house and mailed a 'Congrats for doing so well on your midterm' little gift to my Mom. When I finally did get to work this afternoon, students swarmed into my office. Technically speaking, I am only supposed to help them with the questions they have relating to the lectures. Everyone that wanted to see me today had questions relating to his or her lab work. I fumbled through some of their questions before calling my friend Grant down to help. I feel so ignorant sometimes. As a graduate student in physics, I should be able to answer whatever questions they might have. The problem tonight was that I had not touched the topic that they were studying since I took general physics five years ago. I don't remember all of the little intracacies of the problems. So I have one more thing added to my overflowing plate of work, learn all of the problems relating to the labs so I'll be able to tutor the information efficiently.
After I finished with work, I was getting ready to head out for the evening to study when Grant asked me to stick around in the lab for a bit. He always works better when someone else is around. So I did. I offered him opinions and fixed his problems when needed. Then our acquaintance August showed up. I was inspecting Grant's job of sealing quartz tubes when August appeared so we allowed him in the back of the lab. He wanted to know what everything was and what everything did. I gave him a quick run down of all of the machines and then walked back to my desk. He doesn't need to know everything about our lab, unless he works in our lab. He was obsessed with the new calorimeter that we have. It was just taken out of the box this week and we haven't even used it yet. He declared that he would have set it up, used it, and broken it twice by now. I informed him that we will, in fact, all know everything there is to know about the machine in a matter of weeks. That wasn't good enough for him. He couldn't understand how we were just letting a machine sit there unused. I tried to reason with him by explaining that it is a $30,000 machine, we want read the manuals and be able to work it properly. He informed me that since he has been in his lab, he has broken their AFM at least twice while trying to force it to do things it should be able to do. The AFM is the only piece of equipment that his lab owns. I cannot imagine how much research time that they are losing because it had to be sent back to the manufactorer. I would be so incredibly angry with him if he was sidetracking my research by pushing/surpassing the limits of the machines that I need on a daily basis. He seemed to think my comments were meant in jest, Grant had to inform him otherwise. I abruptly concluded my discussion with August by telling him to never transfer to my lab.
I have lucked out to have amazing men in my lab. Even if our major professor jokes that I am the butchest one in the lab, I am still thankful that I have such sensitive and intelligent men to work with. Not many women are as lucky as I am. I wonder how the dynamics of our work lives will change when one or more of us wants to get married or start a family...
2 Comments:
Wow, I would be upset if someone broke my microscope, too. I mean, to me, that's quite amazing. My thesis advisor used to occasionally crash our one PC, and I lost some data that way only once before I started obsessively backing things up. And then I bought a laptop with my own money, because I can't stand being without working equipment.
On the other hand, sometimes the people who aren't afraid to break stuff are the ones who understand the machinery the best. My boyfriend is a bit like this, he's constantly messing with stuff, mostly computers, but also things like the new FPLC. Me, I'm terrified I'm going to connect the wrong tubing to the wrong column outlet and blow the resin, or accidentally wash my eluate to waste instead of to the fraction collector. But then I'm paralyzed, the manuals for these things are worthless so you're either stuck waiting to ask someone who knows, or you have to be brave enough to try it yourself.
Both of which are stupid for someone at my level. If there's one thing I learned in grad school, it's that you have to figure out how to get it done on your own, because when it really matters, no one will be there to help you.
It's a fine line. I guess the most important thing is whether your breaking stuff impacts other people's work or not. If it doesn't matter... sometimes tinkering can be very educational. But I would be the first to ban someone in my lab from ever using a piece of equipment unsupervised if they had broken it more than once.
Ms. PhD:
I whole-heartedly agree that people who "tinker" with machines, and who aren't afraid to break them, have a better understanding of the machinery. My lab is full of "experimentalists". We all tinker. For instance, I enjoy working with 'nut and bolt' machinery, Josh is a programmer, Matt and Grant throughly enjoy electronics. All of us have our pet tinkering projects that we enjoy knowing everything about.
I do like the fact that our advisor makes all of us know everything about every piece of equipment we own. He forces us outside of our individual comfort zones with the goal of making us well-rounded scientists. Its a good thing that we all get along because we spend quite a bit of time tutoring each other and watching over each other.
You are also correct in your opinion that manuals to machines are worthless. We generally consult the manuals for starting points, then use our individual strengths to fill in the blanks.
Just as you said, there is a fine line as to when tinkering is educational or obstructive to the productivity of a lab. I believe that there is a time to tinker and a time to work.
Thank you for your comments. I did enjoy your most recent post that discussed women in science and the power dynamic.
H
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