Laboratory blues
Jul. 22nd, 2005 03:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tarigwaemirSherman Fairchild, on the Feast of Ste. Mary Magdalene
One of my fellow interns just put a whole bucketful of dry ice in the sink and ran warm tap water over it, creating a veritable Niagara Falls of fog. Thank goodness no one else was in the lab at the time (the post-doc went home early because of a headache, and the lab techs were on break). We took pictures though, so I shall post up photographic evidence later.
Otherwise though, I've been awfully depressed about this experiment. First, I take my Microcon filters out of the centrifuge and notice that the Cy5-labeled DNA had absolutely no color at all. I was about to panic, thinking that I'd irrevocably ruined the experiment, when I realized that in fact I'd absentmindedly taken the empty filters that I had set aside for the next step and ran water through them instead. The Cy5-labeled samples were still sitting in the ice bucket. -_- I am relieved to realize that while the DNA didn't label very well (the Cy3-labeled samples are rather pale as well, nowhere near as saturated as they ought to be), there was at least enough color in the tubes to make it worthwhile. (Although that means the samples had been exposed to light for at least ten minutes...augh. Light, you see, bleaches the dyes.) So I took the Cy5-labeled samples, filled them up with distilled water and was about to put them in the centrifuge when I realized that I used water from the "bad" flask (well, I mean, it's supposed to be clean, but I've refused to use it all this while because I think it's contaminated).
Oh whatever. What annoys me most is that I am currently now the only person in the lab because even my fellow interns have finished their work and gone off to a meeting, after which they'll go home. And I had hoped to leave early today in order to make kendo practice, although at the rate I've been going, I have a feeling I'll be late. ::sniffles:: I wouldn't feel so bad about the latter if the experiment were at least going well, but there's nothing more horrible than continuing carrying out an experiment after making several mistakes, simply because it'll be more wasteful to abandon it.
The real problem though is that I'm not focused on my work, which is why I'm making such stupid mistakes. The other day I nearly forgot to change tips, and I had a paranoid moment of wondering if I'd forgotten before and didn't notice until then. I still don't know, come to think of it, but since that DNA prep failed anyway, I don't have to worry about it now. Wow, this week has been terrible for experiments, hasn't it?
Yours &c.
Post-script: It is now 4:30, and while the hybridization is finished, I've found that the hot water bath I've set up an hour ago is broken and filled with cold water. If there's anything to see on this slide, I shall be quite amazed. I've set up an alternate bath for now; the water is lukewarm but at least the heat block is well on its way to 65 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature the slide is supposed to be sitting in. Today is a no good, very bad day indeed. I shall now run home and hope I'm not too late for practice because these kind of days are when you really want to beat people up with sticks. ;_;
One of my fellow interns just put a whole bucketful of dry ice in the sink and ran warm tap water over it, creating a veritable Niagara Falls of fog. Thank goodness no one else was in the lab at the time (the post-doc went home early because of a headache, and the lab techs were on break). We took pictures though, so I shall post up photographic evidence later.
Otherwise though, I've been awfully depressed about this experiment. First, I take my Microcon filters out of the centrifuge and notice that the Cy5-labeled DNA had absolutely no color at all. I was about to panic, thinking that I'd irrevocably ruined the experiment, when I realized that in fact I'd absentmindedly taken the empty filters that I had set aside for the next step and ran water through them instead. The Cy5-labeled samples were still sitting in the ice bucket. -_- I am relieved to realize that while the DNA didn't label very well (the Cy3-labeled samples are rather pale as well, nowhere near as saturated as they ought to be), there was at least enough color in the tubes to make it worthwhile. (Although that means the samples had been exposed to light for at least ten minutes...augh. Light, you see, bleaches the dyes.) So I took the Cy5-labeled samples, filled them up with distilled water and was about to put them in the centrifuge when I realized that I used water from the "bad" flask (well, I mean, it's supposed to be clean, but I've refused to use it all this while because I think it's contaminated).
Oh whatever. What annoys me most is that I am currently now the only person in the lab because even my fellow interns have finished their work and gone off to a meeting, after which they'll go home. And I had hoped to leave early today in order to make kendo practice, although at the rate I've been going, I have a feeling I'll be late. ::sniffles:: I wouldn't feel so bad about the latter if the experiment were at least going well, but there's nothing more horrible than continuing carrying out an experiment after making several mistakes, simply because it'll be more wasteful to abandon it.
The real problem though is that I'm not focused on my work, which is why I'm making such stupid mistakes. The other day I nearly forgot to change tips, and I had a paranoid moment of wondering if I'd forgotten before and didn't notice until then. I still don't know, come to think of it, but since that DNA prep failed anyway, I don't have to worry about it now. Wow, this week has been terrible for experiments, hasn't it?
Yours &c.
Post-script: It is now 4:30, and while the hybridization is finished, I've found that the hot water bath I've set up an hour ago is broken and filled with cold water. If there's anything to see on this slide, I shall be quite amazed. I've set up an alternate bath for now; the water is lukewarm but at least the heat block is well on its way to 65 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature the slide is supposed to be sitting in. Today is a no good, very bad day indeed. I shall now run home and hope I'm not too late for practice because these kind of days are when you really want to beat people up with sticks. ;_;
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