Some of my students ask me if I ever use my degree at work, and the fact of the matter is that not only do I regularly but also the university allows me more opportunities so to do, budget permitting, despite not being a regular researcher (faculty). Last night, I found something else Biochemistry is good for.
I was looking in my closet for a copy of The Princess Bride when something on the wall caught my eye. I'm glad I took time to pay attention to it, because it was a scorpion. Exactly below it against the wall on top of a stack of books was my Stryer Biochemistry book from college. Our professors had arranged the courses so that we bought that one book for three different classes, thus saving us money. What it also meant is that there was no market to buy them back, and by the time you finished three semesters there was a new version available. So, I have it still, although I didn't really know why.
Without thinking twice last night, I smashed the scorpion with 1120 pages of Biochemistry text. The Scorpion didn't stand a chance. This marks the fifth scorpion inside in the last year, but the first one ever upstairs. We've had quite a bit of rain this season, which might explain them coming inside, although I'm not sure what they're hunting (they eat insects and the like).
Normally, I take pests outside and turn them loose in their own environment. I don't do this to save the planet or any of that mumbo jumbo. I want them to do what they're supposed to do, just not inside my home. If, however, it's something that can hurt me (any biting/poisonous arachnid or reptile or a rodent), I will kill it before it kills me.
I remember a lecture on nuclear weapons and a series on biological weapons, but now I found something else Biochemistry is good for and something Stryer never envisioned: his textbook cannot be stopped by a scorpion, no matter how poisonous or well-hidden it may be.
No comments:
Post a Comment