Apr 15, 2022
15.04.22// Experimental physics is killing me. And Latex always messes with my head, ft. my very messy lab journal.
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15.04.22// Experimental physics is killing me. And Latex always messes with my head, ft. my very messy lab journal.
So,
I don't know who's more brilliant: my genius mentor who instructed me to put a jar of Eppendorf tubes to be baked in the sterlisation oven,
or me, who didn't think it at all problematic to let plastic get nice and toasty at a pleasant temperature of about 200°C.
Long story short, we ended up with a lump of molten plastic, a lab that reeks to high heaven, and Laurance (the French lab tech with the frenchiest French accent that ever frenched) is looking at us with so much contempt that I can feel my DNA getting demethylated.
(I'd be more embarrassed if it weren't for the fact that it was the woman who has a PhD that dropped the proverbial ball - I can only be blamed for uncritically obeying authority figures. 😅🙈)
07.02.2018 ~ Some mornings you just need to have a chocolate muffin. Especially on lab-day mornings. (Although I will admit that today's lab was surprisingly okay! Maybe I'm finally cracking the code here!)
So,
since that last lab anecdote was surprisingly well received, lemme tell you guys about the time I accidentally syringed myself with an anaesthetic intended for the lab rat (and the associated nonsense that followed). 🙈
It was a Physiology practicum at uni, and we were supposed to dose the animals so they go to sleep (while being careful not to miscalculate the dose and kill them). This particular technique required one person from the pair to hold the rat in their hand on its back, while the other person holds its hind leg extended and carefully injects the anaesthetic.
The girl I was paired with was a little bit afraid of rats, and a lot nervous, and she was shaking while holding the rodent (too loosely as it turned out). I take a deep breath (also nervous) and go for the injection; in a fraction of a second, the animal twitches, she twitches, everything fucking twitches, and I end up plunging the syringe into the hand that was holding the critter's leg.
I pull it out immediately, dropping a few creative and panicked curses, and look up to see that the chick had her eyes screwed shut. Hearing me swear and assuming I missed, she's like: "It's ok, it's ok, at least you didn't stab me!"
Me, through clenched teeth: "Didn't stab you, I stabbed myself." 🙄🤐🤦♀️
Attempting damage control, I check out the syringe and see it's almost still full. Okay. So. I get someone less jittery to hold the damn thing and administer the anaesthetic. About 10 minutes later everyone else's furrballs are sound asleep, while ours staggers around drunkenly, then flops on its back and keeps flailing its limbs. The hot TA has the perfect timing to show up and jokingly ask "Why is this rat having an epileptic seizure?", and I give him my most clueless, innocent expression like I have no fucking idea that it's lacking some drugs currently making their merry way to my liver.
The next part of the task is to count the number of toes and nipples the rat has (Lord help me, I still don't see the purpose of that one but they had to keep us busy somehow I guess). My very competent lab partner has trouble finding anything through the thick fur and my own patience is in short supply, so I tell her to just google it. She googles "nipples on a mouse" and gets a fuckload of images depicting boob-stickers for a computer mouse. We dissolve into hysterical laughter and I try to tell her to search Mus musculus or something equally scientific, but instead end up laughing harder, when the TA passes by and raises an eyebrow in our general direction. And at that point I was pretty much resigned with the whole clusterfuck of events so I put in minimal effort to elaborate: "We're not very normal", I manage between giggles.
"That's ok", he responds. "Nobody in science is."
05/06 Orange Caramel Longevity Test
Today, I tested the performance of the orange caramel fragrance over time.
Timeline
1 hour - Orange blossom and white florals should dominate, but are currently drowned out a little by the cocoa/honey
2 hours - florals are weaker, spices and aromatics from amber should dominate but are also drowned out by cocoa/honey
6 + hours - cocoa notes remains dominant, aromatic and resinous aspects of amber accord are limited
Notes for Next Time
Test ethylvanillin and benzyl phenylacetate performance together, then with ethylmaltol
Based on test results, reduce benzyl phenylacetate or other honey/sugar chemicals
Reduce sugary ingredients in amber accord
Test performance of orange blossom with additional phenylethyl alcohol, or additional phenyl hexanol
May 15th, 2019
A Highly-Anticipated Transformation
After celebrating the success of yesterday's gel, we mixed together the seven remaining primers with the vector.
These are the primers with which we are transforming today:
mtP, mt1P, mt5P, mt5S, mtTAC, mtCAT, mtTAT, no insert (control)
The contents of these tubes are as follows:
- 5μL primer mix
- 5μL vector
- 10μL 2X master mix
These were incubated at 50°C for 30 minutes, and then 5 μL were extracted from each for use in transformation.
Not much can be concluded until we see the results of today’s transformation, but I am VERY excited to see what the plates have in store for us tomorrow.
May 14th, 2019
A Couple of Thin Red Lines on a Gel Can Really Make Your Day
Dr. Miller removed the samples at 6 PM (incubation time: 1 hr, 40 minutes) and ethanol precipitated them. There is a good chance the ethanol will have denatured the enzymes (EcoRV and AgeI). Also, even if the enzyme persisted, most of the magnesium will have been removed during the process. As such, we will not be heat-pulsing to inactivate the enzyme.
We spun the samples for ten minutes at 15000 rpm, but did not observe a pellet, which was worrying at first. We dried them and resuspended in 50μl of 1X TE Buffer. These were run side-by-side on a gel with a standard ladder.
I then prepared (labelled) tubes for the next set of transformations. Here is the current status for ALL of my primer mixes, as well as the results of the gel:
Let it be known far and wide that I have a passionate dislike for drawing vertebral columns