For future reference

Note to self: don't date other biologists.

At USAMRIID, Lisa Hensley began doing research on SHF, a Level 3 virus that is harmless to humans but is devastating to monkeys. It was a virus that could emerge as a human disease someday. Her social life had opened up, and she had begun dating a virologist at the National Institutes of Health in Bethseda, Maryland. Things didn't work out well between them. The problem was that when they argued with each other, it was about viruses. Scientific people are competitive types, and they like to be right. Any sort of discussion about viruses with her friend could turn into an emotional fight. One time, they were in his apartment debating some minor point about a virus, and he said, "You're wrong about that." She went over to a shelf, grabbed a textbook, and opened it to the page that showed she was right. She placed it on the kitchen table and walked out. Hensley admitted to herself that this was perhaps not emotionally shrewd. When they broke up she vowed to herself, No more scientists, they're a headache.

- Richard Preston, The Demon in the Freezer, pp. 139-140.

Later in the chapter Hensley takes her parents on a tour of USAMRIID because her mother is worried (materal paranoia *rolls eyes):

Then she discovered what you wear inside a biohazard space suit: green cotton surgical scrubs, latex surgical gloves, and socks. That is all. Underwear is forbidden in a hot lab. Karen Hensley was mortified for her daughter. She could not imagine why they would make any woman work in a laboratory without a bra.

Going commando at work in scrubs which, although clean, are stained with the bodily fluids of both animals and other humans...yah that takes some getting used to =P I don't understand all these stupid nurses and vet techs who walk around on the street, go to lunch, drive cars home, etc., in scrubs. It's like "Hello, the point is to prevent cross-contamination between the outside and the inside..."

Yah and doctors and scientists in movies never button their lab coats. Because, you know, if any hazardous liquids ever splash on you, it's going to be from the back.