10 Reasons Why Food Safety Scientists are Socially Awkward

Fall semester 2013 is FINALLY over!  It is finally time to let my hair down and enjoy the holiday season!  So, what better way to do that than with a blog?  I know, I know, you are all probably getting tired of having to read these.  Hopefully this one will be a quick and entertaining read though!

As you all know I am studying food microbiology and that I spend a great deal of time with other people who are in the field of food safety (molecular microbiologists, immunologist, epidemiologist, etc.).  If you have the pleasure of having one of these people in your life or you are one than you know that at times it can be difficult for us to come out of the lab and into the real world.  So, what follows is: The Top Ten Reasons Why Food Safety Scientists are Socially Awkward.

1)   We can’t make it through an entire meal without talking about diarrhea.

2)   I have, more than once, received a text message describing to me what symptoms someone (or their child) is having, and have text back asking for more information.

3)   We understand the bacteria we study on a more intimate level than most of the people in our lives.

4)   We can twist any conversation back to talking about bacteria and how it can kill you.

5)    We catch ourselves wondering if we know a certain person well enough to tell them exactly what it is we do...

6)   We make statements like “I wonder what kind of bacteria we could culture from that.”  In regards to things like: baby toys, cockroaches, bodily fluids, etc.

7)   We notice things at restaurants or in grocery stores that no body else would.

8)    We get text messages like this:

      Or this:

9)     The people we love have just accepted the fact that they may never eat a meal again without hearing about all the ways that it can kill them.

10)  They have also accepted the fact that we will make jokes pertaining to lab techniques or terrible symptoms that you can get from eating things... that nobody will get.