The Lab Monkey Thread of Joy and Despair

Yessssssssssssssssssssss!!!!! The reaction works. My project is officially viable!! :biggrin:

Reply 122

EierVonSatan

Now you've jinxed it.

I have a spectrum. A beautiful spectrum. It has a peak, one that corresponds to the expected product. I knew that sticking the reaction mixture straight in the NMR tube was the way forward :smile:

Anyway, I only said that the project was 'viable' - that it works on one substrate gives me enough scope to spend the next year of my life testing it on anything else I can find.

Reply 123

Had a good talk with supervisor who asked if I needed intervention and basically just confirmed everything I thought I knew about how it's better to do one project really well than the five my postdoc seems to think I need, and how it's okay for me to question everything he says without he slapping me down for being a mere PhD. I didn't mention that he's taking the piss out of my name and my degree, but at least I have a feeling I've got some semblance of power back in the other stuff I'm doing.

I really want to get in today and sample a bunch of Cadenza so I can be ready to roll on Tuesday (postdoc made me sit down yday and plan what "we" are doing and be generally irritating and I just want him to sod off and let me get on with my work) but I know my supervisor is in today and I don't want to look suck-up-ish :frown:

Reply 124

RadioElectric

2

I'm currently writing an essay on contour integration for this Thursday. I'm about a thousand words into it (out of 5000) but I'm still not really hitting my stride, it's infuriating. I used to be really good at getting essays written, feels like I've forgotten how since I graduated.

Reply 125

Mommy don't make me go to labs tomorrow :puppyeyes:

Reply 126

poi12

Athena

Mommy don't make me go to labs tomorrow :puppyeyes:

Uhh, it's going to be a long 3 (or 4) years, is it?

Reply 127

Four, and yes, yes it is :frown:

Reply 128

Athena

Mommy don't make me go to labs tomorrow :puppyeyes:

Throw a sickie.

MASSIVE pain in the arse: Thursday night - Bacchus drinks
Friday morning (8am): group presentation... that I'm giving.

****.

Reply 129

That's quite a conundrum, C :p:

I would throw a sickie, but my supervisor is back from her two week ~~holiday~~ conference trip, and I'm off on Tuesday to a symposium.

Reply 130

Athena

That's quite a conundrum, C :p:

I would throw a sickie, but my supervisor is back from her two week ~~holiday~~ conference trip, and I'm off on Tuesday to a symposium.

Alas, the talk is going to have to win. I feel that turning up late and giving a presentation while hungover would probably not make the boss want to give me a place for a DPhil...

Reply 131

shiny

12

Athena

Mommy don't make me go to labs tomorrow :puppyeyes:

That is not the Sanger spirit!

Reply 132

=gabriel=

13

JayEm

Any computational chemists out there that know how to use Gaussian?

Would Hyperchem help?

Reply 133

Bekaboo

How embarassing... The reason I have no enzyme is because I didn't ACTUALLY order it

Update: It turns out that I DID order the Taq, but in a funny roundabout way. So when I embarassedly ordered some more... that was for the second time. They both arrived today. What the hell am I gonna do with this much enzyme?!!?

Reply 134

Boo, last summer I used as much Taq in six weeks as the whole group (5/6 people) usually uses in three months. You'll use it :cool:

Reply 135

Athena

Boo, last summer I used as much Taq in six weeks as the whole group (5/6 people) usually uses in three months. You'll use it :cool:

Well the really annoying bit is that I didn't order HiFidelity stuff, so the whole lot might be useless anyway :s-smilie:

I've got two lots of 250 units... so enough for 200 reactions. I've got 8 plants, so that's 25 reactions per plant. Doesn't seem that likely I'll get through it all in the three months I've got left! Who knows though... maybe lots will go wrong...

Reply 136

=gabriel=

13

Bekaboo

Well the really annoying bit is that I didn't order HiFidelity stuff, so the whole lot might be useless anyway :s-smilie:

I've got two lots of 250 units... so enough for 200 reactions. I've got 8 plants, so that's 25 reactions per plant. Doesn't seem that likely I'll get through it all in the three months I've got left! Who knows though... maybe lots will go wrong...

Surely you can just leave stuff in the lab if you've got a bit leftover? In my lab we had an 'Enzyme club' freezer with ligases, polymerases and restriction enzymes where you could find most stuff...

Reply 137

=gabriel=

Surely you can just leave stuff in the lab if you've got a bit leftover? In my lab we had an 'Enzyme club' freezer with ligases, polymerases and restriction enzymes where you could find most stuff...

Sure - I'm just being a bit possessive in a kind of "I just spent 20% of my 4 month grant on enzyme so I bloody well want to use it myself" way.

My RNA is slowly denaturing on the side because I didn't put it back on ice since I didn't think it could possibly take the undergrads 20 mins to load a gel. And now my RNA is in the room with them, and I can't get to it without asking them to move, and I don't want to embarass them. But I'm getting more and more antsy...

Reply 138

=gabriel=

13

Bekaboo

Sure - I'm just being a bit possessive in a kind of "I just spent 20% of my 4 month grant on enzyme so I bloody well want to use it myself" way.

My RNA is slowly denaturing on the side because I didn't put it back on ice since I didn't think it could possibly take the undergrads 20 mins to load a gel. And now my RNA is in the room with them, and I can't get to it without asking them to move, and I don't want to embarass them. But I'm getting more and more antsy...

Wow that's being way too nice you should just say 'RNA - on ice - chop chop! And don't forget to mop up the floor when you're finished!'

Reply 139