How does a typical day in the life of a physicist look like?

I once had a sociology student telephone to ask to spend a day with me. Every student in her class was supposed to see how a professor spent the day. I told her I was far too busy to give up a whole day, but she told me that I missed the point. She would try to be as invisible as possible.  She didn't want me to change my day; all she wanted was to be able to watch me.  So I agreed.

At 8:30 am she appeared in my office, and sat in a corner (actually just outside the office, with the door open).  Every now and then I would look up and see her, and she would quickly turn away so that she wouldn't catch my eyes.  I suddenly felt like I was a gorilla being watched by Dian Fossey.

At 5:30 pm I told her I was leaving for home.  She was very grateful.  I asked her if there were any surprises.  As best as I can remember, her answer was something like this:

"YES!  It was amazing!  It was totally unlike anything I expected!"

I asked her what she meant.

"I thought a scientist spent the whole day in a laboratory, working by himself, maybe with test tubes, or on the computer.  But you spent -- let me calculate it -- you spent 62% of your time talking to other people!  Right after I arrived, one physicist came to your office, and you spent an hour with him.  Then you worked for 15 minutes, and got up to get coffee.  At the coffee station you talked physics with a group of graduate students for 17 minutes. Then you came back to your office and telephoned someone, and spoke for 20 minutes.  Then you went to the library and looked up some papers, but you met someone there, and he came back with you, and you talked about his research ....  Then you went to lunch, and sat with 7 graduate students and 2 faculty members and discussed the recent discovery of something in particle physics.  After lunch ...."

She finished by saying that she never realized that a scientific work was so social.  Indeed, neither had I.  It had been a typical day for me, and I realized that I do indeed spend much of my day with other people. But I told her that two scientists together can get as much done as 4 working by themselves.  We build not only on the shoulders of giants (a famous quote from Isaac Newton), but in the collaboration with others. It is far quicker to discuss an issue with a knowledgeable colleague than to ponder by myself.  In the end, there are things that others don't know, and that is where I put all my individual effort.  It is a waste to spend time reinventing something that is already known.

I think more people would find science attractive if they didn't have the wrong image of the lone scientist in the laboratory.

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