I spent 25+ years in the precision optics industry, a large portion of which was building machines and instruments for fabricating and testing aspheric lenses and mirrors. Designing, performing, and validating null tests is technically terrifying. Not only is the clock ticking, but every operation on the artifact carries a risk of destroying it, or making it unusable.
It's not life-and-death, but it's pretty satisfying nerd work.
It's not life-and-death, but it's pretty satisfying nerd work.