tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-60130342009-02-21T00:18:47.996ZI love lab!! The blog about how great lab is.Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1170029092098182712007-01-28T23:40:00.000Z2007-01-29T00:12:32.150Z

Stranger: "Are you THE [lab geek's real name] who did the [high impact factor journal] paper?"Lab Geek: " (pause) ... yes."Rather unexpected, given the completely non-lab and non-science context (they'd seen my name written down on a rota for something).Even more unexpectedly, there appeared to be a legend that had built up, about this wonderful student who'd produced a great thesis, written a

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1106264702418588282005-01-20T23:43:00.000Z2005-01-20T23:46:17.803Z

Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 14:23:35 -0800 From: science-mailer@liontamer.stanford.edu Subject: Science Table of Contents: Type 2 Diabetes: 307 (5708) SCIENCE, Volume 307, Issue 5708, Type 2 Diabetes ... ... ... *DELETED!!*

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1106066388865179532005-01-18T16:39:00.000Z2005-01-24T15:01:26.063Z

DOCTOR! (subject to minor corrections)

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1097620058819649582004-10-12T23:22:00.000+01:002004-10-12T23:27:38.820+01:00

Handed in. Yay. Phew. All I have to do now is to make sure I've actually read my million or so references, rather than just the 'discussion' or 'conclusions' section ...

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1096320684410048562004-09-27T22:22:00.000+01:002004-09-27T22:33:20.696+01:00

AKA "My Big Fat Greek Wedding." I've spent the last ten minutes musing on and off as to what a "small beta Greek cell" is. You know, musing on and off. Write a sentence here ... check my email ... wonder what a small beta Greek cell is ... check a BBS ... look at a webpage ... look at an abstract ... wonder what a small beta Greek cell is ... wonder where and why my housemate got that Boyzone

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1096060904582700992004-09-24T22:14:00.000+01:002004-09-24T22:40:19.196+01:00

Picture the scene. You spend a few hours working out how to use a new and swanky program that will save you tons of time, and a while longer working out how to apply the effects you want in Paintshop Pro. And you are proud of your fabulous creation and can't wait for someone to come in so you can show them. Then someone wanders in and as you proudly demonstrate the fruits your hard day's work,

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1095937085269689622004-09-23T11:56:00.000+01:002004-09-23T11:58:05.270+01:00

I only just found out today that 1 Dalton = 1 atomic mass unit. I really should have known this a long long time ago (and quite possibly did)!

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1095721891184642322004-09-20T23:49:00.000+01:002004-09-21T22:32:30.603+01:00

Another grand PhD theory. As described by 'M' in the pub the other day. M's law of journals : "In every edition of a journal, there is at least one article that is far more interesting than the paper you are supposed to be reading." Lab Geek's Corollary : "As your interest in the article discovered through M's law of journals tends to one, the likelihood of gaining credit from mentioning it in

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1095342902032926992004-09-16T14:40:00.000+01:002004-09-16T15:06:40.086+01:00

Confucius he say : "Person who switch off fridge/freezer overnight - deserve to die long painful death." What good luck - I got told the other day by my absentviser to write up what I've got and stop doing lab work. What bad luck - I was going to be fiddling with stuff in the lab while doing this to see if I could ascend the (n-1)th and nth steps of my current (n-stage) project. What good luck

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1093020704987034822004-08-20T17:47:00.000+01:002004-08-20T17:51:44.986+01:00

I occasionally have lab dreams. Like the one last night, where I discovered that the reason my expreiments haven't been working was because I was using DDT (the banned pesticide) instead of DTT (the reducing agent). Easy mistake to make. I checked today and unfortunately this isn't the case. So I still need to work out what's not quite right.

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1092916897162385322004-08-19T12:57:00.000+01:002004-08-19T13:49:38.596+01:00

"I just made some up." Positive meaning : In reference to proximity in time and buffers. Negative meaning : In reference to merely and results.

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1092745002575670592004-08-17T12:42:00.000+01:002004-08-17T13:16:42.576+01:00

Misconception 1 : "That sounds interesting." It's not. Misconception 2 : Anything that involves columns, male to female connectors and domed nuts must be inherently hilarious. It's not. Misconception 3 : Urea smells bad. I have 5kg of the stuff. It doesn't. But you do. :-p Misconception 4 : Asking me when I'm planning to finish is a good conversation starter. It's not. Misconception 5 : I

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1092399094971929812004-08-13T13:00:00.000+01:002004-08-13T13:15:38.653+01:00

So there I was, trying to find a cheap source of some lovely stuff to make my protein's His tag stop holding hands with some Ni2+ ions. As you do. And I discovered that there used to be a rock band called imizadole. Unfortunately they have now split up, but you can still listen to the MP3s. So I've just whiled away a few happy minutes flicking through the Sigma catalogue to see what other

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1089970434145614812004-07-16T10:29:00.000+01:002004-07-16T10:35:42.003+01:00

So you looked at the timestamp on the last couple of posts and predicted that I would do something stupid today? *Bing* (At least it gives me something to write about.)   So I arrived at the building for a meeting with my supervisor this morning. *Pockets* ... No keys! ... No time to go back and get them! ... Probably couldn't get back into my own house anyway even if I did!   It must

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1089944326624182382004-07-16T03:15:00.000+01:002004-07-16T03:18:46.623+01:00

So then I notice that I turned on Autocorrect in Word for a bit so that I could make some arrows by typing '-->'. And forgot to turn it back off.   And it has changed my prolines into pralines   ARGH!!   And my II into Ii. Which wouldn't be so bad, if Ii wasn't something that II could bind to - they're completely different things!   BOOOOO!!!!!   Do sane people get urges to murder paperclips?!

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1089944067088427642004-07-16T03:12:00.000+01:002004-07-16T03:15:03.290+01:00

Why no posts recently? Because I realised that (blog words) + (thesis words) = total word count for the day. And that I could write 4500 thesis words in three days if I didn't write anything here. Or something like that.   Anyway, that's another chapter out of the way, so maybe I'll be around a bit more.

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1088466252881578672004-06-29T00:43:00.000+01:002004-06-29T00:44:12.883+01:00

"polypraline twist" Presumably the outward expression of a subliminal sugar craving.

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1088005722870746522004-06-23T16:39:00.000+01:002004-06-23T16:48:42.870+01:00

There are two kinds of online updates that can grab my attention. One is sport - the lab radio can only really be on a sports channel if I'm the only one around. And the other is order tracking and stuff like that - it's nice to know when things are going to be ready. In an odd twist, these two came together the other day. There's a big footy tournament on at the moment in Portugal (as you might

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1087899260237714092004-06-22T11:12:00.000+01:002004-06-22T11:14:20.236+01:00

I love online ordering. The drop-down boxes are so easily filled in. On many databases around the world I am already a Professor!

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1087858271987823792004-06-21T23:44:00.000+01:002004-06-21T23:56:02.766+01:00

There is a greater than 10% chance that it might have gone right at last. You get butterflies for 40 minutes pacing, waiting for the electric field to do its stuff. The gel is there ... line it up with white light... on with the UV ... WOW! Look at the screen! Now it's printed it out, the gel can go and you know that the insert is in the plasmid for ever more. There's only one thing that can be

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1087668504449401612004-06-19T19:06:00.000+01:002004-06-19T19:08:24.450+01:00

When two people get engaged, they cannot contain their excitement and will not rest until they have told everyone they know. I just did that because my insert and vector got engaged. Sad, isn't it?!

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1087554801107053612004-06-18T11:19:00.000+01:002004-06-18T11:42:45.750+01:00

I don't know if I'm the only person this happens to. When I'm tired and have been concentrating on something for a long time then switch to something else, I see all sorts of parallels between the two. This preamble is an apology in advance for what is to come. Like the start of a meeting with your supervisor. :-) Anyway ... The thing I'd been doing for ages was trying to get inserts into

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1087434132274484602004-06-17T01:55:00.000+01:002004-06-17T02:02:12.273+01:00

Lab Geek is currently trying to fathom which scenario is more satisfying. (1) You try something, find out it has worked first time at 2pm, and go for a long coffee break. (2) You try something several times over the course of a few weeks, get increasingly panicked and frustrated, get sat on from above with a seemingly impossible deadline, and eventually get it to work at 2am the day before it

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1085496225608392252004-05-25T15:36:00.000+01:002004-05-25T15:43:45.606+01:00

Monday : Writing down what you are planning to do this week. Wednesday : Writing down your new plan on Wednesday. Friday : Writing down what you actually did. Making an extra gel or two and sticking them in the fridge 'for later'. Running a gel. Finding 1200 words you wrote for something else and pasting them into your thesis. Printing off a paper and stapling it. Tracking down an obscure journal

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6013034.post-1084399457217388822004-05-12T23:03:00.000+01:002004-05-25T15:45:56.836+01:00

"Hyperactive antifreeze protein in a fish" Nature 429, 153 (13 May 2004) (So, actually, it should be silly paper title of tomorrow!)

Lab Geekhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18071981298741242038noreply@blogger.com