What do I do?

This has been a question that has been asked a hundred times and one that still always makes me think before answering. The people asking this question range from my parents, kids I teach, colleagues in Biology, to software engineers (you guessed it right- in decreasing order of general awareness about the world ;)). My answers (depending on a lot of factors) often evoke yet more interesting questions. Most recently, when I told a kid from the basti that hum research karte hai (pardon my exceeding but temporary stupidity), he asked me- mutleb, aap ye (pointing towards the hinges of the nearest door) thik karte ho? I am not so stupid all the time and often people are more forgiving and reply with only a quizzical look or a confused "meaning?" or "what do you do, exactly?". (At the other end, colleagues in Biology mistake me for a bioinformatician, but more on that later some time...) To communicate what I really do, and more importantly, as a small attempt to increase public understanding of science and scientific research, and scientists, I have decided to answer this question in some detail here. I am afraid it will turn out to be longish, so once it is done, I will insert a one-paragraph guide to help people find the most relevant bit.

So, I am a researcher/scientist, biologist, and (currently) a computational biologist interested in understanding how microbes work and evolve.

People are vaguely quite aware of what scientists are- "scientists are people who do the work reported in the news about our moon, other planets, stars etc., (or lately) Higg's boson, cancer, stem cells, new drugs/vaccines or (at most) the brain and behaviour". And they use the microscope! That's right! But note two things-

1. our natural world is much much more diverse than that.

2. how do scientists exactly find out how the world works?

What will follow is a series of articles that will address the above issues in detail.
Hope you enjoy reading them and enjoy the understanding! I will be very glad to answer your questions and receive feedback.