I have worked in a clothes shop, as a waitress and in a gap year before university (to make money) I pulled things apart! I tested medical products to see how much force was needed to break them, it was good fun.
I am currently finishing my PhD on cells and African swine fever virus and how together they harm pigs. I have until September to finish so I am cramming at the minute.
Favourite thing to do in my job: Trying to work things out! Give me a question or a problem and I love nothing more than working out the answer. This can be a science problem on which I need to do research or the questions on here which I have to try and work out the answers to and then explain!!
I work with a tiny virus which goes inside the cells of a pig and makes them really ill, I am trying to work out what cells it goes in so we can stop it.
Talking!!! I talk at work to work mates. Then I go on conferences (travelling is also a great thing about being a scientist!) and I talk to more people about science. The great thing about science is that talking is good, we need to talk to each other to find out what people are doing and what exciting discoveries have been made.
My alarm goes off about 10 times then I get up. I get to work and plan my experiments before having a cuppa tea and a chat with my work collegues.
My experiments normally involve looking at cells with different microscopes to see what the cells and the viruses are doing. I actually spend a lot of time looking after cells and setting things up.
These pictures are really complicated and I find it really exciting to be able to see all those things but I have to get expert help to work out what everything is!
Occassionly I kill some time on the web including twitter (@PamLithgow, follow me if you like) and facebook (yeah scientist use them too), or on websites that make jokes for scientists (because I am a geek at heart)!!
I would buy a laptop and a camera to attach to the microscopes. This would be used by the group at my institute which goes to schools and clubs to show students science.
There is a group at my institute that goes to schools and clubs to show students science. We do all sorts of silly and messy experiments!
One of the things we do is look down microscopes at horrible blood sucking bugs.
When we do this it can be difficult for all the students to see what we are looking at down the microscopes and for us to tell them what is there. A camera and laptop would allow us to see what they are seeing and to explain to them what is there.
A laptop would also allow us to show the students videos and other stuff related to the other experiments we are doing with them.
Played with dry ice! This is probably naughty but it is amazing fun. You get bubbles and bangs; it is like playtime in the lab!
do you know any thing about Arthritis as i have it?