Summer job?

I spent the morning on coursework again. Energetics calculations - how many MJ does this woman need for lactation, how much extra does she need to eat if she's using up fat reserves over 16 weeks... Lots of concentration on accurate calculation, attention to detail, that sort of thing.

Then I moved on to Communications Skills again - essentially a short essay on "wot I hav lurned from the corse" with reflective thinking about skills in the real world, and how best to listen and talk to people. I haven't finished it, and have no idea how to incorporate external references, but at least it's getting written more quickly than the previous one.

In the afternoon I went to see a professor at Warwick University, to talk about an opportunity to gain lab-based work experience over the summer. He described at length the research he's been engaged with for nearly 30 years, relating to the behaviour of lipids in cells, particularly relating to diabetes. I listened so hard it almost hurt. I needed all the biochemistry we've been taught over the last 18 months and I've taken away the diagrams he drew to illustrate what he was talking about. He seems confident that there is a nice 8-week project that I'd not only be capable of doing, but should even produce interesting results. I am intrigued, flattered, thrilled and apprehensive in equal measure.

I was hoping for summer work doing something more directly relevant to dietetic practice, and there's still a chance of that. But if I do this instead, I will learn an enormous amount about one teeny tiny aspect of fat metabolism, and gain lots of experience in lab techniques, including separating protein by electrophoresis and handling radioactivity. That would be exciting.