A Day in the Life of Emma Bakes

December 1996

My typical day will start when I haul myself out of bed, pull on a random assortment of clothes off my bedroom floor and drive into work. I have a morning ritual well known amongst my colleagues at NASA Ames. I buy a large coffee and a doughnut, which I eat when I get into work, log onto my machine and reply to the e-mail I have received. Then it is a dive into the deep end as I run computer programs and work out the physics for my latest astrophysical model. I write all my own programs, usually in Fortran, and use my amassed knowledge of physics to formulate a realistic scenario for an astrophysical or astrochemical problem. If I get stuck in a mental rut, I will consult with an "advisor", a senior astronomer delegated by NASA to collaborate with me.

By lunchtime, I will buy lunch from a certain restaurant, usually the same thing, which always amuses the owner a lot. While I eat, I'll read a women's magazine or a book of poetry or short stories or draw cartoons and read a comic book. After lunch, it's right back to intensive computations and head scratching as I try to figure out why my model failed or what the latest set of results means astrophysically. At around 4pm, my brain is ready for another caffeine jolt and chocolate input. I wrote my Ph.D. fuelled on caffeine and chocolate. If I am lucky, one of my colleagues will call round for conversation about his date the night before or the latest antics in his life. Once my coffee break is over, it's back to astrophysics and more wrestling with the computer and algebraic equations.

By 6pm, I am grateful to take a mental break and drive off to my martial arts class, which usually involves stretching your body before intense aerobic exercise. Once the exercise is through, I practise my kicking, punching, set forms and sparring. Martial arts stresses the union in action of mind, body and "spirit" and it is exhausting to relearn the spontaneity required for this coordination. I limp home and have a hot, relaxing bath before driving back into work around 9pm and sorting out bureacratic details necessary for maintaining my science and life in general. I'll always put the stereo on in my office and listen to something like Glenn Gould playing Bach's "Goldberg Variations" or some Industrial music if I need energizing. At some point, I will probably take a break to practise my flute for half an hour.

At the end of the day, I come home and have convoluted chats with the people I share the house with -- we'll discuss anything from global ecology to why our personal lives are not working out. We're all vegetarians and try to cook dinner together when we can spare the time. Then it's off to bed, where I will fall asleep almost immediately. If I don't, I usually lie there and think of the good things in life, people I particularly like and admire and the dreams I would like to fulfil in future.

Weekends, I go to my martial arts class on Saturday in San Francisco and explore the city. Sunday, I usually end up working on my computational models or writing research papers, books on astronomy or articles on science, music, education, life and the universe. I love to write almost as much as I love astronomy and these articles fuel my more analytic side, providing a refreshing break from number crunching. I may also go out to a gig, or listen to the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra or watch a good Hong Kong movie.