During the summer after my second year of undergrad, I was working as a summer student researcher at Western University in London, Ontario. It was my first real research gig (though I had done some gentle lab work the previous summer, after my first undergraduate year). My project was to measure graphene flakes using an ambient conductive atomic force microscope (AFM), since the group was building solar cells and wanted to use graphene for the electrodes.
The microscope was a home-built system, and from my perspective at the time, it was very complicated and persnickety. It took me at least a month out of my three-month internship just to learn how to use it. But even by the one-month mark, I had still not taken any decent measurements. Now, with about ten years of AFM experience under my belt, I know just how many things have to fall exactly into place to be able to get pretty data, but at the time, I was somewhat bewildered by it.
Then, one night, right at the end of the day, I approached my sample and it worked. It was my first real independent measurement. The data was beautiful. I wasn't going anywhere. I stayed in the lab for hours, past sunset and then past midnight, taking what would be my best data of the summer. While the system scanned, I wrote this poem in full. It was a serene and poignant evening, the first night of my scientific career. I'll hold it with me forever.
The hallway seems to whisper “Hush,”
“Be careful, dear, don't trip, don't rush.”
Special things take place in here,
For Scientists are lurking.
And I've approached a door at last,
I press my nose against the glass.
There! I see them in their Lab.
The Scientists are working.
I stand up on my tippy-toes
To watch them thinking. What repose!
Oh, what an honour it must be
To look and look and truly see.
They're peering into Nature's eyes
And peeling back her fine disguise;
Who knows quite just what's to find
When Scientists are working.
I step outside and stop once more,
For night has fallen. Stars galore
Now decorate the canvas sky.
(Its beauty nearly makes me cry.)
I sit upon the chilly ground.
What wonders there are to be found
By all who seek them, lab or no,
By all who chase them, hearts aglow
With fiery curiosity.
My mind is smiling; I've found peace.
Adrift in thought I close my eyes.
For now at last I've found my prize.
I'm lost in wonder, lost in awe.
The scientist is working.
© 2021-2024 Megan Cowie