I'm a research scientist, and I do X-ray crystallography of proteins. We have 24 hour shifts when we go to synchrotrons (like the new Diamond Light Source in Oxfordshire, where I was last night). I've just got home and am about to get some sleep. I don't get any extra pay for these shifts, they're just part of my job! No such thing as overtime in any kind of academic institution (I work for a cancer research institute which is very much part academia, part industry in style of work).
This one wasn't as bad as about the same time last month when I went down to Grenoble on the train on my own (not speaking any French, and carrying a dewar which must be kept upright and not opened!). Getting there was fine, the beamtime was pretty lonely and tiring, but they don't give you a room to stay over an extra day, so I had to travel back through France, then on the Eurostar, then back to work in London, then back to Oxford where I live... All after a 24 hour shift without sleep in between. Not nice!!
But I'm not complaining about it, it's really good fun (when things work). Now I need to sleep, then process all the data I collected!
Bbbbbbbed calllllls...
