Exciting times in the lab/How I came across my very first job scam
The past week and a half have been full of exciting things. Last week I got to observe actual biologists at work as they kindly prepared dynein samples for us placementers (?) to track. I learnt how to use one of the ALIEN-inspired pippettes (like holding a piece of science fiction in one's hand. This really is the right field for me), make viewing chambers made of sellotape, glass and highly viscous fluids and then watched in amazement as from a load of chaos and mashed up biological stuff, a network of microtubules formed within a couple of seconds on the screen. They looked like rather well behaved nematode worms except for when they started moving which is when they looked like normal nematode worms. Watching the beads we would be tracking move along the microtubules was awesome, especially when they exhibited some 'tug of war' behaviours (kinesin vs dynein. Showdown of the century. This is what's going on in your body, people, on a 24/7 basis).
Unsurprisingly enough, less awesome was the physics bit, which involved taking the samples to a freezing cold Psi lab (freezing cold because of the lasers, I presumed) and tracking them with quite possibly the most disgusting microscope in the history of disgusting microscopes. I'm surprised we managed to track anything - which we have - the lens was so dirty. One of the standard hazards of biophysics, apparently (and amusingly reminiscent of one of Feynman's anecdotes about studying at MIT when he attempted to dabble in biology): physicists don't really get what the deal is with contamination.
No wonder no one likes us.
Anyway, am now back in the computer lab where I belong, now the only placement person left (ah but don't cry for me. I get to keep the room at the perfect temperature, the windows open and the mugs clean. I also get to do victory dances without inspiring the envy of my fellows at my innate sense of rhythm), and having put together a code I hope will work (it's one of those things where the individual algorithms all worked ok but putting them together might reveal some other bug that I'm almost too tired to care about), I am now tracking the beads in the videos we made last week.
The good news is I think I'm seeing superdiffusion. The bad news is I might have to write up another code to get the expnonents (call me lazy, but it's annoying to find all the wonderful stuff you were promised was already written, isn't).
~
Of late, I've been desperately looking for a job. Any job. So long as it's not in an office or in 'sales' (and I don't mean Retail. I mean 'sales'). Actualy even that I wouldn't mind, but I'm not really qualified for.
Of course I only do so through respectable channels - newspapers and well accredited job database websites - but that hasn't prevented the scammers popping up.
As ever, it's always a case of, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. I got a phone call (Number Withheld. First clue) from a lady called Carmen replying to my application a few days ago. I have to say it was pretty convincing. She held up at all the right times, put on that annoying background music they do at call centres, the works. It would have been alright if they hadn't asked for £245 - for 'advertising' - before I could start working.
Oh dear. Bad move (and no, I didn't pay them).
Ah well. I've reported them to as many places as possible, though annoyingly the database site in question (mymanchesterjobs.co.uk) seem to have a broken link to wherevever it is you're meant to tell them about suspected job scams etc. Honestly. Some people.
But yes, exciting times of the impoverished student. And to think I've got two more years of this to go through. Good thing I've got a blog.
EDIT: Ahaha, just found another scam one but this time it was advertising for a waitress. I love how easily they crumble when you ask them the, you know, most basic questions one can possbly ask an employer like "who do you work for?"