Monday, February 06, 2006

Graduate School or Football?

The most recent graduate student to join our lab is a rather large guy. He is built like a football player and has the strength of a football player. He is tall and wide. I think if he had decided not to go into a Ph.D program, he could have easily made a career in professional football.

The "problem" with this graduate student is that he does not seem to be aware of his own strength. For instance, one day I needed to use the CO tank for an experiment and could not open the valves or get the regulator off because he had tightened it so much that NO ONE could get it to budge. We had to call in the Praxair rep and although he was able to get the regulator off (and hence put it on another CO tank and make it usable for me), he could not get the valves to budge either. He had to cart it away and take it back to the company lab where I presume they deal with this type of situation in a safe area.

Also, with this graduate student, I am noticing that parts of his work area are disappearing. First, an entire wall of cabinets are gone, then the doors of the cabinets on another area are gone, and some covers to drawers are gone.

One day, curiosity got the better of me and I asked him what was happening to his work area. He told me that when he goes to open things (like cabinets and drawers), they "come off". I really hope that this graduate student graduates in a fairly normal time course because I don't even want to think of what this lab will look like if he stays here a very long time.

I am glad that he decided to go into research instead of football. Had he gone into football, I would really pity the opposing team members.

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