I'm on leave this week.
This (time off) is a problem for scientists, because as I've intimated previously, experiments do not stop when we do. It is especially bad for cell biologists to go away for more than a couple of days, because our cell cultures need feeding and looking after. This means getting the cells to a stage where they will not be much bother for the absence period and finding someone you trust to check on them and change their media. Think getting someone in to feed the hamster or goldfish and you'll understand.
I was particularly badly burned in this respect early on in my career. As a final year grad student with young Kiwi bride I went to New Zealand for a month. I got my stable, monoclonal transfections growing up and left detailed instructions with the post-doc for their care. When I got back I discovered that he had managed to contaminate at least half of them while trying to freeze them down for long-term storage. That is a lesson I have not forgotten.
This week I have left the stable transfectants — some of which have already been frozen down — in the capable hands of the student, P. She sent me an email yesterday confirming what I wanted her to do, which was thoughtful (although the subject line ur cells [sic] did give me a moment's elevated heartbeat).
I can trust P with my precious, sweet, vulnerable and innocent cells.
But it is still a little bit like your first child going away on her first overnight school trip. . .
