Life in general is unpredictable, and grad school tends to follow that trend as well. This may explain why, last night, I found myself settling down to read a rather large textbook entitled, “Algal Culturing Techniques.”
I always hated biology in school (though I found microbiology to be better than the other stuff). So how the heck did I end up in a situation where I had to grow algae cultures? Well, redox states of trace metals in the environment (which is my specialty) can be controlled by reactive oxygen species such as hydrogen peroxide. Some algae are known to produce hydrogen peroxide. Hence, my need for algae cultures.
Luckily I know people in the lab of the Super-Duper Algae Guru here on campus who can give me some hands-on guidance in how to grow green gunk.
The Unlikely Grad Student 
You want to play scientist, well you have to wear many different hats now. No one is a pure chemist or pure biologist anymore. You either move to the interdisciplinary groove or get left behind.
By: Genomic Repairman on February 26, 2010
at 8:50 am
I *am* in the interdisciplinary groove–I do geochemistry. Geology AND chemistry. I went this track so I didn’t have to do biochemistry any more. *sigh*
By: unlikelygrad on February 26, 2010
at 10:27 am