by syaffolee
This Research Is [Beep!]
The title to the seminar, referring to nutrition and microbes, was innocuous enough. But fifteen minutes into the talk, it sunk into my brain that the speaker was talking about dog poop. And that wasn’t all. There was also cat poop, horse poop, chicken poop–well you get the idea. It was like something straight out of the Annals of Improbable Research. And no one was even smirking. The professors were sitting there, attentive, while the undergrads–as usual–were zonked out. Had the lecture format completely cut the cheese?
“I thought the talk was very interesting,” another grad student told me seriously, after the seminar.
Oh geez. Is that all you have to say?
Don't Shake the Flask 
Maybe this is my hallmark of being a horrible person who’s been twisted by watching “Dirty Jobs,” but that actually sounds like an interesting seminar.One of the best seminars I remember from my graduate days was on mold. The ones I remember being glazed-over for were the ones on the very subtle detail of some genetic sequence or something.