tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-63981552008-10-06T18:06:22.809+01:00Diary of a postdoctoral scientist, who works tirelessly in a lab somewhere.Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comBlogger763125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-56171757003337952762008-10-06T17:58:00.003+01:002008-10-06T18:06:22.819+01:00

Anyway, following on from the last post - there are more important things in life. I have to go to a morning course tomorrow, but the Red Sox are playing tonight. Time difference means the game starts at 1.37am over here, and I am torn between watching that or being a good postdoc. And yes, I did watch all 5 hours and 20 or so minutes of yesterday night's 12-inning loss. And still got in in the

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-45188953600029147102008-10-06T17:45:00.002+01:002008-10-06T17:52:00.720+01:00

Ah, Mondays. So full of promises of life being better this week. My heart fills with hope that something will be problem/stress-free this week. And of course, that doesn't last long. The latest twist in my little world is that the fridge I had moved, and had plugged in, had not been cold. Over the whole weekend. Apparently, the electricians had not flipped the switch when they left, just in that

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-33821339708059867832008-10-05T10:39:00.004+01:002008-10-05T11:29:54.340+01:00

I am taking time off from my extremely busy October schedule to post this - it's hell living across the pond when your favourite is playing in the West Coast - because I was reading Dr.Isis' recent posts. My clothing style mainly depends on what the PI wears, as well as my current wardrobe. In my PhD lab, I emulated the style of a stylish (neurosci) postdoc, wearing trousers and boots and

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-57466915166741286192008-10-02T17:45:00.001+01:002008-10-02T17:45:01.140+01:00

One of the things that surprise lab people must be the tissue culture incubators. I mean, they look innocuous, with vast open spaces inside their boxy exterior. They don't do that much, apart from giving people hell when they are infected with fungus (did I mention that time I found a jelly-like alien creature living in the water trough at the bottom? No, maybe not) and beep their hearts out when

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-53934552380685023372008-10-01T18:12:00.001+01:002008-10-01T18:12:00.093+01:00

I went to a celebratory party the other night, since two students managed to obtain their doctorship - i.e. they "passed" their viva. Well, one of them did real well, and really seemed to enjoy the viva. But the other.....had a bit of a problem at the end. She didn't quite know whether she had passed or not. Apparently her external examiner didn't mention the phrase "congratulations, you have

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-68275359470128141622008-09-30T22:24:00.002+01:002008-09-30T22:35:14.107+01:00

When I went for a drink a while ago, a new postdoc told me that she almost did a Ph.D. with my ex-boss. She actually went for the interview, but didn't get the position. It went to another guy, who in the end didn't turn up to even start his Ph.D., and as this new postdoc knew him, told me about what kind of a guy he was like (i.e. was more stupid than her). But I think I know why last-boss

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-73714251804577071952008-09-29T18:51:00.002+01:002008-09-29T19:12:22.980+01:00

All this packing, moving, and unpacking is tiring. I have no stamina, and by 3pm I am totally exhausted of putting things into drawers and onto shelves. This moving thing is tough, you know! Anyway, I think I did my back in by trying to lift crates. They weren't even heavy. I only wish I was being paid like a certain right fielder if we are both suffering from stiff lower backs. Although I can do

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-27427360066682363602008-09-25T20:38:00.003+01:002008-09-25T20:50:08.005+01:00

Never before has a solitary life in the mountains been so appealing to me than right now. Why is it so stressful dealing with people? What is wrong with others? Why can they not plan, be responsible (ok, that is too much to ask from some people), be proactive (ditto), be useful, be more relaxed about money....ugh. I hate dithering, and I really hate not having to solve a problem. I fail to

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-2606218564891374562008-09-23T22:11:00.002+01:002008-09-23T22:28:04.449+01:00

Quite amusing what 6-year olds think about where babies come from.

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-31152866342474227482008-09-23T21:45:00.002+01:002008-09-23T21:54:25.991+01:00

I have never read so much in one day from the Economist or the FT website before last week. No, I didn't have anything much to do, and analysing results wasn't the most enticing way to spend my work time. And then I found DealBreaker to amuse me. It is kinda amuzing. It's old news, but GolGan SachLey....heh.

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-66858539130672810612008-09-23T21:39:00.000+01:002008-09-23T21:42:56.728+01:00

I had a manuscript come back whereby the reviewer commented that one of the bands of my western was slightly cut off from the image, i.e. without the five band-width on either side (if you get what I mean - and also, they were taking cue from the JCB editorial). Which didn't really piss me off, because what the reviewer pointed out was fair - the band was skewed, so I did some rotating, and that

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-25724722122825749502008-09-23T17:42:00.003+01:002008-09-23T17:51:03.090+01:00

...litter. Trash. And that's not even talking about the humans who walk them. Half-eaten kebabs. Puke. (Fried) chicken carcass. Smashed beer bottles. Puke. Flyers for a 2-for-1 drinks evening. Puke. Yes, the students have returned. Between the assault of the new and returning undergraduates, which an acquantance of mine calls "cholesterol", and the stress of the move - not the move itself, but

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-49677583389554630422008-09-20T11:08:00.001+01:002008-09-20T11:09:02.334+01:00

I just should not bother doing anything remotely related to cloning. Last week, I was going to remove the insert from a particular plasmid and religate it to get the vector only. I wasn't paying attention (or read the instruction leaflet for the ligation kit) and dephosphorylated the linearized plasmid before trying to religate. See, the last time I did any cloning, which was...um...about 2.5

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-8931247566483939702008-09-16T21:37:00.008+01:002008-09-17T19:19:46.792+01:00

I was preparing this post, with a starting sentence as follows: "How sweet it is to beat the (Devil) Rays...." Well, that didn't happen, now, did it? I was kind of ticked off, since I actually did watch yesterday's game in full. Yes, from 12am (BST) to 3am. And why is it that I never ever watch a blowout? I have a dilemma though. Do I start my live-baseball watching life now, or in October (

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-1524510388721852232008-09-15T19:10:00.008+01:002008-09-15T22:37:11.448+01:00

Reading posts over at Lecturer Notes and Kyle, I was thinking maybe I should say a bit about a more personal matter. This isn't something I would normally do, since this blog is just a scientific rant blog; I also don't particularly like to talk about it in the public domain, since I hate sob stories. And I feel like an exhibitionist, you know, boasting about my problems and how I overcame them.

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-72509081141979490232008-09-14T00:05:00.002+01:002008-09-14T00:21:15.856+01:00

Reading comments over at DM, it made me think. Some women are happy showing their femininity and cleavage (cue Dr.Isis). But have you ever met one of those lothario-esque, top 5 buttons undone, chest hair showing male specimen at a scientific conference? I have met a student who was like that (as in, oozing sexy male-ness, with ass hugging jeans, and a nice ass to go with it too. No chest hair,

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-15269148121680923812008-09-13T23:25:00.004+01:002008-09-14T00:01:00.578+01:00

A few people land on my blog via Google searches about Ph.D.s (search terms either "to do or not to do" or "I hate Ph.D."). They normally find this post, which I wrote over a year ago. I've been thinking about writing a positive post regarding doing a Ph.D. for a while. There are so many negative posts about it out there in the web. Of course, people only say something when things are going

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-80735078613206824512008-09-13T22:14:00.002+01:002008-09-13T23:18:58.454+01:00

I was going to continue my journey down Bourbon Street, starting with the Jim Beam green label. But then I started drinking my "Evil Drink", Old Rip van Winkle 10-year old, 107 proof. This bottle has such a pretty, artistic label, and I just had to have it just to decorate my drinks cabinet (okay, it's more a corner of my cupboard), despite the price (it is basically double what I normally

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-62605582584114570272008-09-12T21:58:00.003+01:002008-09-12T22:03:38.665+01:00

In between watching the Red Sox hopefully do something against the Jays this weekend, I shall be going in to work to try and squeeze a couple of more experiments in before teh move. I suspect that we will have to wind down about a week before - the hoods need to be fumigated and decommissioned before moving - but myself, I am setting two whole days for the packing. At least I don't have to worry

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-18879405279981619592008-09-12T21:47:00.002+01:002008-09-12T21:54:30.803+01:00

I was talking to some of my ex-colleagues, trying to get a vector which has been discontinued (as well as catching up on gossip, and just chatting - amazing how a 15-minute trip to the homeland becomes a 90-minute catching-up session). Recently I received a couple of plasmids, with inserts in this discontinued vector pABC. I looked at one of the plasmid maps they sent with is, and it had been

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-8663998674686274442008-09-12T21:14:00.003+01:002008-09-12T21:47:34.379+01:00

All the blogging I have done with regards to George, and all the negative ideas, must show in my attitude and my facial expressions, because George is now wary of me. Which is of course a good thing. This means he won't bother me uselessly and endlessly, and it also means that he wasted his time doing an ill-timed Bradford assay today. In our lab, the plate-reader and luminometer (it's back

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-39100095733932749422008-09-12T19:56:00.002+01:002008-09-12T21:06:28.428+01:00

George (yes, him again) and I were discussing his lates results on the corridor, when BigBoss walks by and stops to have a chat with us. The result we were discussing was to do with this particular stable cell-line, which have to be under antibiotic selection at all times. Through one reason or another, George hadn't been adding antibiotics (discussed in a previous post). I don't know whether

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-5690097243834000322008-09-10T23:38:00.003+01:002008-09-10T23:51:14.041+01:00

Went jogging yesterday down a cycling lane (oft used by walkers, joggers and cyclists alike), and on my way to the U-turn point of my course, two lady runners stopped me and asked where I was going. Apparently, about a km further down, there were two guys who were exposing themselves (to passers-by, not to each other, I suspect. I mean, there are bushes around, but we aren't talking Hampstead

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-54826855311462820602008-09-10T22:44:00.002+01:002008-09-10T23:51:36.743+01:00

A lot of us in the lab uses this particular compound to induce an effect on the cells, and as we have had problems before with the stocks solutions not working, I suggested that people use mine. Once in solution, the compound only is stable for 3 months anyway, and as I get a lot of aliquots out of one vial, it makes financial sense to share. To some extent. So with three people using my stock

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6398155.post-49535867804024618852008-09-10T22:30:00.002+01:002008-09-10T22:44:14.828+01:00

Following on from sophster's comments regarding bench tidiness... I can live in a flat with a dust bunny colony per room, but my lab bench is cleaned more regularly. I think it is the size of the Dyson vacuum cleaner, and the effort required to move it, puts me off cleaning at home. Anyway, I think I learned to be clean since I had to do RNA work on my bench, as well as prepare qPCR plates, in

Louhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11099716853888820543noreply@blogger.com