Work: Day 1

It's safe to say that, after only four hours in the lab, I am completely overwhelmed with information. Today I realised that this really isn't a holiday/jolly/whatever you want to call it; I'm actually going to have to work hard. Oh, and I haven't given a thought to anything remotely Biochemistry-related since the invigilator called "stop writing now please" at the end of exam period in May. Uh-oh.

Lindy met me outside the apartment at 9am and we walked across campus to the School of Animal Biology, where I'll be spending the next ten months in the Neuroscience lab. For anyone Bioscience-related at Bath, it's not that different to 4S (i.e. hideous architecture but well kitted-out), just a lot bigger. She pointed out all the good coffee shops en route, so it's nice to see where her priorities are!

Everything I'll be involved in is on the first floor; a long corridor with access to loads of different facilities. She first showed me my desk in an office of about 12 stations; as the honours students (those doing a year between undergraduate and PhD) are all finishing up and leaving between now and November, it was already pretty quiet, with only a few people still working on their projects. After that, it looks like there'll be a few months where the usually "upbeat social circle" (Lindy's words) will be taken down a notch, before new students arrive in February/March. I met Alexia, Tamasin and Alex, who all seemed pretty chilled and wanted to know all about what I'd be doing. Not that I can answer that question at the moment! Next to our office is a large communal kitchen and dining area, then on the other side of that is the "big kids'" office, where all the team leaders have desks, or, like Lindy, a small office sectioned off. Here, I met Carole and Michael, two big dogs in the department, and filled out a form that will get me a visitor's card to get into the building after hours. Not sure I'll be doing much work of an evening, but hey, always useful.

I then had a short tour of the laboratory facilities. It was all a little manic, what with all the interspersed introductions, but, from what I gather, the workspace is divided into three: DNA, histology and surgery. As of tomorrow, I'll be working in the DNA lab for a few weeks, mainly doing cell culture (not the most exciting task, but a Biochemist's bread and butter really) and a bit of analysis with Lindy to check I'm spotting the right things. This requires me to have a safety induction in the form of a 55-page risk assessment that I have to read by morning. I've read the first few pages and genetically modified organisms are mentioned quite a bit, so it could prove to be quite interesting! Histology is basically where the cells we're experimenting on will be stained or otherwise assessed for results. It's in the surgery lab that samples from organisms (mainly rats) are prepared; we're using a lot of spinal cord slices I'm told. Unfortunately I won't be doing any cutting, but apparently we're welcome to go and watch when something gory's going on!

It was as we left the labs and entered Lindy's office that the deluge of paperwork and admin began. I've been given papers on just about every aspect of neurodegeneration, some along the lines of Lindy's research and some a little further afield. Along with the DNA lab induction, I'll need to read a standard operating procedure (SOP) and methods form for each piece of scientific equipment I use as I go along, before signing a sheet declaring I know how to use it safely. This is a bit of a change from uni, where they pretty much let a load of under-qualified, hungover baboons loose on all manner of expensive machinery without much instruction (and they wonder why we manage to screw up in one way or another every time). As I write this, I've just received an email from Jenny informing us that, in addition to the inductions and the SOPs and the methods, we have to do two online modules (in gene technology awareness and biosafety), for which we need to arrange temporary UWA log-ins.

Around midday, I left the building with enough paperwork to sink a ship and a head full of new faces. The intention is to return home to immerse myself in reading and focus on the day ahead, but I make no promises that my brain won't go into meltdown, resulting in me being asleep by 6 o-clock.

xxx

P.S. Biochemist friends, you will absolutely love this. As a newly registered user of the DNA lab, I have to add myself to a rota that involves filling tip boxes with autoclaved tips because so many get used day-to-day. I thought that's what technicians were for?! I'm sure come final year I'll be asking you all to spare a thought for the consequences of launching them across the room just to hear the cool noise the Epindorph makes...