In seriousness, a lot of particle physics has to do with smashing shit together really really hard and then studying what comes out. If I am for instance trying to observe a k meson, the way I’d do that is to accelerate a bunch of gold nuclei up to 10 or 12 TeV (i dont remember how fast that is in m/s; some small fraction of the speed of light), smash those gold nuclei into eachother, then look at the spray of particles that comes out. The expected products of a collision like that are heavily dependent on what you started with before any smashing occurs, so particle physicists do tend to care pretty significantly about macro molecules like metal. Mostly because of their decay products, but the metal is important

Be on site military contractor

Told I’ll be making infinitemoney.jpg

Actually make slightlymorethangs.jpg but with no pension

Tfw ptsd from analyzing combat footage

Tfw actively and daily shunned as “not one of us, just a dirty filthy contractor”

Tfw you can’t get another engineering job because your entire portfolio is classified

Tfw when there is no mental health support or support groups available for aforementioned “just a dirty filthy contractor” reasons

Decide to go back to college instead of killing self

Check brand new school email

“Hi, my name is Sgt Fuckface! Here at the national guard we’re looking for promising young graduates like you”