Wednesday, July 9, 2008

The Adventures of an Accidental Scientist: Part IV

After I started chronicling my adventures in science, my friend Danielle left this comment on my blog:
That really is interesting that you ended up so sciencey. I think maybe it's because you look so great in a lab coat
That made me think. Do I really look good in a lab coat? I don't actually wear one all that often, unless I'm really cold or working with nasty chemicals. But I thought I'd put it to the public. Do I look good in a labcoat? Here I am modeling my own personal lab coat just for this post. Please note the pipet on the counter (my tool of choice presently) and the microscope on the left (my second favorite tool of choice).

Also, please note the embroidery on the breast pocket. That's a relic from my first summer working in the lab five years ago when I worked with fourteen guys- all married (okay, one of them was just engaged, not married, I admit), and I felt a need to assert my femininity. It came out as stars and flower on my lab coat.

I got a few comments on it and then no one cared much until a couple of years ago when Channel 5 news did a story on our lab and the work we do with quinoa. They interviewed the professors, and Dr. M was frantically looking for a lab coat so he would look more official on TV. He happened to see me and asked me if I had a lab coat he could borrow. I hesitated. Then I told him I did . . . but it had flowers on the pocket.

He gave me a very startled look and asked, mostly joking, what I had gone and done that for. Needless to say, he did not end up borrowing my lab coat. Heh. That's one good way to designate something as your own in a male-dominant field.

3 comments:

Danielle said...

I reaffirm that you look great in a lab coat. I can't understand why Dr. M wouldn't prefer your cute coat to a boring plain white one.

Anonymous said...

Lab coats are just so official looking. Even more than a suit.

Ross & Amanda Goodman- but mostly Amanda :) said...

You look awesome! If I ever need an individualized lab coat I know who to call.