Today I was
stood in King’s College chapel in complete darkness while a beautiful friend
stood next to me and an angelic voice was singing to us. And the thought
crossed my mind that such moments have been lived inside that exact building by
human beings for 500 years now. And in that moment I was so happy to be part of
that history.
 |
| One of the best books ever. I promise. |
On a less
poetic note, there is nothing like a 4am conversation with a cab driver. Some of
these happenings consist of solid silence, others are bubbly like my favourite
liquid: Moscato. Aldi sometimes sells lovely bottles for 4.95. If any of you
haven’t yet been to this wonderful supermarket, please go. It will change your
life, even if just by strengthening your thighs due to the extensive cycling to
get there. Anyway. Sometimes these cabdrivers seem to feel deep hatred for
science and scientists. I have, in the past, had to listen to one of them
explain to me that big pharma companies “invent” diseases in order to be able
to sell drugs. Another morning, one of them told me, that “doing a PhD is a
waste of time. The only thing you guys do is invent new batteries for iPhones
which large companies can then make shitloads of money with. You guys don’t
even get anything from it”. Yep. That’s EXACTLY what we do. I left the cab with
a brief “actually my research could help cure leukaemia but never mind”. The
view on science and scientists that a sizeable amount of the general population
has is not very positive. So on an afternoon last week I was indeed rather
happy to be able to discuss my work with a friend who, despite not being a
scientist, is very much interested in its applications and implications for her
own life. She calls herself the “most recessive person ever”. Trust me, after a
glass of prosecco on an empty stomach (to celebrate her engagement yayyyy),
this statement made my week. You may ask why this genius of a girl calls
herself recessive. Quite simply, she has beautiful blonde hair (my jealousy
cannot be described in words), fair skin with cute freckles and wonderfully blue
eyes. Recessive traits. Lucky her. Anyway it was great to discuss my science
(blood stem cells) with her and to feel like someone appreciates your work.
After a couple of hours I said “I will now do a signal”, to which our tipsy
selves burst out laughing and we went to look at random stuff in shops. Yes.
Shopping. #WellcomeTrust. I have also most
recently had lunch with a friend who is very much a scientist and we came to
discuss the pros and cons of living in London during your PhD. Sometimes I get
jealous of people who live there because there seems to be endless
entertainment there. And he said (sorry non-Swiss people you will now feel left
out. Deal with it.) „You know, Cambridge is kind of like Winterthur.“ And I was
like:“Hey. Winterthur is awesome, they have the Technorama (a huge interactive
science museum – it’s fab).“ To which my friend relied:“Yeah, here in
Cambridge, the University is our Technorama“. Lol. So true. But also,
sometimes, when I walk across the lawn at Leckhampton, towards my conservatory
(yes.) I feel a little bit like a character in one of my favourite books: Das
Glasperlenspiel (by Hermann Hesse). We are so lucky here in Cambridge. Today I
spent my whole day at lab reading fascinating papers about redox state in
leukaemia cells. I learned so much and had so much fun. And I got paid for
doing that. I get to live and do what I love all day long. And it might even
help other people. Stood in King’g Chapel tonight I felt so lucky. I wish those
cabdrivers could see into my heart. I genuinely feel like life is a flower. Or
an oyster. I also wish someone genuinely invented a better iphone battery,
because it is bloody rubbish.
Kommentare
Kommentar veröffentlichen