I miss data. In my current dream job the small non-dreamy part is not being in the lab myself anymore. So I don’t pipet 96 wells plates anymore, I don’t do western blots anymore (my favorite molecular biology technique because of all the playing with water), I don’t do surgeries anymore and I don’t patch cells anymore. As you can see, this isn’t really about data (cause I do get to play with other people’s data), but rather about performing experiments. And these past couple vacation days during the holidays I found a reasonable alternative to the focused-but-absent-minded state that doing lab work can bring: I taught myself to crochet.
So next time someone asks: “how do you handle missing data?” I will answer: “I crochet.”
Heh, I had the same experience in the opposite direction. I used to have lots of fiddly hobbies, making and tinkering with all sorts of odds and ends. A few years ago my Dad asked why I wasn’t doing them any more. I thought about it, and realized that the hands-on craft of daily lab work satisfied that need for me.
Like you, I find Westerns pretty satisfying especially now that I have the technique down and have lots of little tricks to make a *pretty* blot. (Although they were immensely frustrating for the first year or so of grad school, since my lab didn’t have any real expertise with Westerns.)
My other favorites science crafts are making worm picks, sharpening #55 super fine forceps, dissecting impossibly tiny critters, and making a really nicely mounted sample for confocal imaging.
The 3-hour pipetting sessions, on the other hand, I could do without…