Writing in the Corner

Rather than answer the question in Heather’s comment in the comments, I will make a post out of my answer.

DH is a biologist. He studies the systematics and evolution of mammals and reptiles. I like listening to him talk about the different aspects of his work. At the end of the semester, he comes home with interesting stories about his students’ unreasonable demands. When he is working in the lab, he will often describe the processes he is undertaking using a words I don’t understand. He is not being a smart-aleck, just using the accurate words to describe what he’s doing. (By the way, when this happens, it’s quite a turn-on. Smart guys are hot!) When he is planning a field trip, he turns into a tall, middle-aged boy scout. He consults maps, buys gear, and constructs interesting devices to use as traps.

Killing the lizards is part of the work. He will preserve some tissues and probably the skeletons as best he can, and maybe the skin, too (not so sure about that) and deposit them, along with collection notes (like locality, etc.) and identification in the museum at Big State University. He will keep some of the tissues and reduce them to samples of DNA, which he will sequence. The goal of all this, of course, is not only the pursuit of knowledge for its own sake, but funding.