Now in Circus Ring Number Three...

Yet again, I got to be the performing animal in ring number three- oh, I am sorry, the hard working post doc who just happens to be working on the HR-TEM at 6pm on a Thursday night as an important group gets a tour of the nanocentre.

I know that this time was especially important because the boss wore a suit jacket and actually made myself and Elaina practice our talks.

This time it was the Board of the University. 18 prominent members of Israeli society came to visit me in my natural habitat, the electron microscope room. Included in the audience was the University President, University Rector, a head of one of the big Israeli Banks, a few extraordinarily successful business people, former Members of Knesset (parliament), and a former Chief Justice.

I didn't know any of them from a hole in the ground. Except for the Rector. I met her once before. She is really nice.

I did my little thing, showed pictures of my little nanoparticles, explained what I did and gave an example of how I used and needed the electron microscope in my own research. After I was through, there was a moment of silence and the little old lady who had been standing two feet in front of me and still squinting to see me said "You love what you do, don't you? I can tell." I guess it really doesn't matter if this crowd of big cheeses understood the science of everything that I said. I can be contented with conveying passion and excitement.

I also got asked my favorite question that gets asked in many ways but this time came as "Why are you here? How does being here advance your career?" I have answered this question in some very poetic round-about ways before but this time I went for the direct hit. I replied "to get a big fat resume," and promptly got a chorus of laughs. Sometimes the dead honest answer is the best one.

I had fun doing this, and I had almost forgotten how much I like pulling out my Park Ranger skills and talking to the public. Silly as it sounds, showing people the park for those summers was some of the best training for being an academic scientist I ever had.