and what do you do?

I’m starting to think that a compulsory part of every PhD/new post-doc project should be one experiment which is involved with cancer or some other well known disease. Not because I think that we need more cancer researchers, just so that when I’m asked what I do at a party, it would be good for once (especially after a few beers) to be able to give a nice, easy to understand answer, like “I’m doing cancer research” or “I’m trying to cure sick children”. Not because I want to impress women or sound like I’m trying to save the world, I’m just bored of the strange looks I get when I try and explain that my job involves picking fruit fly virgins and letting them have sex… Although I’m also considering lying and telling people I’m an accountant or I sell drugs to kids.