The Lab Monkey Thread of Joy and Despair

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Reply 200

Cirsium

Apparently Kew Gardens is the "raging homosexual den of London." Who knew? :eek2:

Reply 201

ChemistBoy

ponjavic

Just started my experimental PhD.

I'm supposed to be using fluorescence spectroscopy but my postdoc is totally using my engineering to help him construct stuff :P He does seem knowledgeable though.

Atleast I'm getting paid ^^

To be fair, building something or taking something apart is a great way to learn. You're in first year, don't expect to get much in the way of results, at least you are doing something useful rather than bumbling around the lab making mistakes like most first years.

Reply 202

ponjavic

ChemistBoy

Optimism spotted and approved!

Reply 203

cpchem

Today was good... I realised that I can, in the time it takes for one fraction to come out of my column, dash to the other side of the lab, pick a cd, stick it on and make it back in time to change the test tube.

It's all about the small victories :smile:

Reply 204

Cirsium

I solved the mystery of the PCR... and then unsolved it again.
I just can't believe that while test-running 9 primers that, by rights, really shouldn't have worked everything went perfectly and then while using primers that have never failed suddenly nothing happens...

Reply 205

cpchem

Bekaboo

First rule of science: nothing ever makes sense :biggrin:

Reply 206

Cirsium

OMG OMG OMG left UV on overnight, fried gel, stuck to cabinet, am going to be thrown out and go to hell

Reply 207

ponjavic

Bekaboo

OMG OMG OMG left UV on overnight, fried gel, stuck to cabinet, am going to be thrown out and go to hell

Any chance you can cover it up, fix it, before anyone notices?

Go go shadiness

Reply 208

Cirsium

ponjavic

Any chance you can cover it up, fix it, before anyone notices?

Go go shadiness

Nah tried, realised I was getting nowhere and making supervisor suspicious and decided it was better to come clean than to try to solve it myself and genuinely **** a £4000 cabinet. I got in trouble but bizarrely not as much as for blocking the sink :s-smilie:

Reply 209

RadioElectric

Bekaboo

Maybe because they have the staff and knowledge there to fix the expensive high-tech equipment, but they have to call a plumber in to fix the sink. :biggrin:

Reply 210

Athena

I was productive today, I got something working that I suspect my supervisor didn't think I could cope with :biggrin:

Reply 211

Athena

I just turned 400 words of method into a work flow diagram, which doesn't count towards my write-up word count :biggrin:

Reply 212

Cirsium

Nicely done :biggrin:

I don't have a wordcount. I don't even have any guidelines. Other than that they used to suggest 15 pages (per 4 month project) but that since they removed the guidelines it's not uncommon for people to submit FIFTY.
On the one hand, that's like OMG that's nearly as long as my thesis. And then I'm like yeah but I did 3 days of fieldwork for my thesis (shhhhhhhh) But then I'm like yeah and you spent an entire summer doing data analysis....
Oh the drama :eek:

Reply 213

Cirsium

And once again I'm alone in the lab past half 6. I'm almost beginning to feel like an Oxford student again.

Reply 214

Cirsium

http://members.verizon.net/~vze3fs8i/air/airpaper.html

Reply 215

cpchem

Bekaboo

http://members.verizon.net/~vze3fs8i/air/airpaper.html

Reply 216

Athena

Guys, what programme do you use to write reports? I'm trying to do mine in Word and it's such a bitch with diagrams and tables!

Reply 217

Cirsium

I'm using Word and agree...
Why did they cock stuff up so much with Word 2003? I mean I know 2000 wasn't perfect, but seriously in what world should the default setting be some weird kind of cocked up indent?? And why should tables automatically sit somewhere completely random relative to regular text??
I sorted it all on my laptop when I first did it but don't really remember how and now it just bugs me at work all the time.

Grrrr. Also, I have my first real lab meeting (as opposed to "there are lots of new people and they're making mess and we all need to be super tidy now there are so many of us") on Wednesday (the night after the Christmas party - which would be fine were my supervisor going but he'll have been in since 7am :s-smilie:

) and I have precisely no results. Not even my first little bit of sequence. GAH!!!

Reply 218

Athena

Heh, Thursday is my first presentation to the group. My presentation, bar one table that needs a final column of data, is done - animated, set to work colours and complete with notes for me - the works. It's just the write-up that's proving a bitch because, well, I've never done one. So I've pulled off my supervisor's two most recent papers to copy the style of. It's different to essaying :frown: