"Mm," she says to his explanation - he didn't lose her, not as basic as he's able to make it - and then turns to his question. "So where I'm from, we've developed a lot of tools to look at or measure things people can't see. What I do, personally, is study the way organisms - animals, mostly - are related to each other based on the most fundamental building blocks of their biology. This guy a couple hundred years ago figured out that similar animals are descendants of one common ancestor species, but it's actually way more complex than he had the tools to measure or describe."

She perks up a bit, when she's talking shop. Even if she's not recovered yet, engagement definitely feels better than lying around or restlessly wandering the tents.