
The “Oh, so you’re a scientist?” conversation
“So, what do you do?”
“Erm, I’m a scientist.”
“Wow, like, one of those CERN, or particle, people? Higgs bo-something wasn’t it? Like Stephen Hawking? Ha!”
“Ha, yeah, no. I’m a biologist. I don’t know too much physics.”
“Yeah but science is science. Right?”
“Erm, well, no, not really. Biology and physics are completely different.”
“Oh, so you do human stuff, then? Like a doctor?’
“No, not humans.”
“But I thought you were a biologist?”
“Yeah I am, but I don’t do medicine. I’m actually looking at cell biology — the working components that make up organisms. But I’m not really looking at humans in particular.”
“So are you curing diseases or something?”
“Not really. Me and the people in my lab are mainly trying to figure out some of the basic processes — like how parts of the cell work. It’s really interesting, actually.”
“But you’re not curing diseases?”
“No.”
“What’s the point of that?”
“Well, you need to understand how something works before you can fix it when it goes wrong.”
“Ah okay. I guess you’ll be curing diseases in the future?”
“Sure. But it’s not my focus.”
“Why not?”
“Because I’m mainly interested in understanding how the biology works. I’m doing the basic science — the foundation work. I enjoy figuring out the puzzle of how cells, how life, actually functions!”
“Okay okay.”
“Sorry. I just get this a lot. It’s not all about curing diseases and working on human biology, you know? It’s about furthering our understanding, asking questions about the living systems we take for granted, gaining real insight into how a complex organism works.”
“Does it pay well? Because didn’t you do like a million years at school or something?”
“No, not really. But I’m not in it for financial reward. And yeah, I did spend a number of years at university.”
“But you get all the school holidays off because you work at the university?”
“No. It’s a full-time time job.”
“But what about when all the teachers go home for holidays?”
“I’m not at school! It’s not school. I don’t have teachers. I’m a biologist working at the university!”
“Sheesh okay. So you don’t cure disease, you don’t get paid well, you don’t get any good holidays, and you spent, like, forever at school to do this. Because you like puzzles and stuff. Sounds a bit weird to me.”
“Well. I happen to love it. Anyway, what about you?”
“I’m a day-to-day personal assistant and aide to the manager of an international bank.”
“You mean a secretary?”
“No! It’s completely different.”
“Sure. Does it pay well?”
“Oh yeah, really well. I just got a big Christmas bonus — going to take the family away on a little break.”
“That’s… nice… So I guess you need some sort of qualification to do that?”
“Ha! No. I wasn’t very interested in school. I just sort of fell into this job.”
“…”
“You okay?”
“Yeah I gotta go speak to someone else now. I need a drink.”

