Geek Speak

[dxmachina]

My physician and I get along pretty well. I think he rather enjoys being able to get into biochemical explanations with me, knowing that I'll be able to follow them. And lately, we've had to do far too much of that. We also spent some time yesterday discussing the legislative overreaction to mercury in the workplace (both his office and my place of work have been hit with the unintended consequences of such well-meaning legislation).

But what really cemented it for me was while we were discussing the usefulness of gathering as much data about a condition as possible. He asked, "So, do you know what the difference between dāta and dăta is?"

"Sure," I said without hesitation, "One is a name, the other is not."

He said I was the first patient to ever get the reference.

It's sort of like a secret handshake.

Comments

[tortoiseshell.livejournal.com]

Hey DX, I mentioned you to my son the other day. He's a junior now and he was telling me that he might be interested in studying science in college, but he didn't know how a scientist got employed other than teaching, and he didn't want to teach. So I told him that you and a couple other people I know worked in science fields and didn't have to teach.

Is it ok for him to drop you an email about real life science if he has questions? His teachers and Bill Nye are about the extent of his science exposure.

Also, I like your doc.

[dxmachina.livejournal.com]

I'll be happy to answer any questions he has, even though I wanted to be a teacher.