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Aaaarthuuur here!
Journalism intern, 27 years old, getting ready to meet some PhD students…
…people who are going to change my life!
(Meandering Rivers of Rain)
Albert, it’s your old friend.
Listen, I need you to do me a favor.
Come pick me up.
I have to meet this PhD student.
Apparently, she does research on the dynamics of liquid rivulets.
Can you see me doing that??
“So…tell me about your work?”
I'm screwed.
You hear me? Screwed.
And all because of you!
So call me back.
Bye.
Ow!
Are you ok?
– H-Hello. – Hello.
– Stéphanie? – Yes, exactly. Nice to meet you.
What is… What exactly is… your, your, your research about?
I study an instability in hydrodynamics.
So, hydrodynamics is the study of liquids. We’re interested in how liquids move.
I look at the shape of liquid rivulets, streams of liquid flowing on a surface.
It's what you see on your window when it’s raining. You see it well in the car, too.
So if we just let a liquid run down a surface, there’s a little stream of water that flows.
It flows toward the bottom, due to gravity.
We use a slanted surface, or it can be vertical, in the case of a window.
Maybe you noticed, sometimes the stream is not completely straight; it bends.
We call these “meanders”, because they resemble a meandering river.
But what about you? What were you hoping…
What were you hoping for…when you chose this path?
Well… At the beginning, it’s true, I wanted to study archeology.
All about the scientific method applied to archeology.
And, well, clearly, life sometimes leads us to other things.
In our lab, we work with certain companies.
In general, when you want to cool or clean something, you let liquid flow over it.
So, obviously, industry is interested in understanding how liquids will flow over surfaces.
And, um, what do you expect… What do you expect for your future?
I don’t think I’ll continue in research.
I’ll probably move into science communication, instead.
Or try, at least.
Obviously, there aren’t any jobs just waiting for us.
In research, anyway...
To get a position in research today you have to do several years as a post-doc.
It’s actually really complicated.
It’s a job that brings you face to face with yourself, I think.
Basically, if our research works, that’s great.
But if it doesn’t work, it won’t affect many people, besides us.
Clearly, it’s better for the team if our PhD project works, but they’re not affected directly.
So it’s kind of a difficult moment, when you find yourself facing your work all alone,
and there’s no one to turn to but yourself.
What a beautiful person Stéphanie is.
So bright, so full of life and dreams.
She welcomed me into her home,
explained her work to me, with simplicity,
spoke to me of her hopes, past and present.
She seems to accept wherever life leads her.
It must take a lot of serenity to do a PhD.
How I would love to be serene.
Happy, no – that’s just impossible –
but serene.
Written and directed by Paul Garcia In the role of Arthur: Dimitri Pougnet The researcher: Stéphanie Couvreur