Today I spent two hours watching a scientist do incredibly tedious work. The time actually went really fast – she does this incredibly tedious work all the time, but to me it was all new and I had a lot to figure out:

What are you pipetting?

(Sodium hydroxide solution.)

What’s that machine called?

(A rotator.)

What are those pretty liquids?

(Buffers.)

What’s in those tanks?

(Argon.)

Actually, she thought the time went fast, too. So not only did I pick up a scene for a story I’m writing, I served a purpose: entertaining the postdoc.