Frustration in the lab
Just to avoid speculations: this is from pixabay.com and does not depict me.
In one of my very first posts, I described a day in the microbiology lab which later spawned the idea of my first science challenge. But recently, I felt this kind of post might give you the wrong impression when it comes to working at the lab.
The past few weeks, I had several different lab practicals as a part of my education. Some were fun, some a bit less. The current one is the worst I’ve had in a while.
On Monday, everything was still alright. We started at 10 am which is comparably late, I had to be there at 8:30 am every other time. So I expected things to be very relaxed. I had no idea how “relaxed” they would be.
We were presented with several mutants of the plant A. thaliana. The task was to determine their genotype, that means to see if they’re heterozygous or homozygous for the mutated gene in question.
What does that mean?
You all know that for every gene you get one version from mom and one version from dad, right? If both mom and dad have blue eyes and they give you the blue-eye version of the eye color gene, you’re homozygous for blue eyes. If mom gives you blue eyes and dad gives you brown eyes, your heterozygous. There are two variations. @suesa
The same works for the plants we looked at: They either had the mutation only once (heterozygous) or twice (homozygous). Determining this characteristic is important for later experiments.
In theory, it’s not that hard. You cut off some leaves, mush them into a green soup, add some chemicals, do some repetitive stuff and BAM you have isolated DNA. That DNA is then used for a PCR (polymerase chain reaction). This process is used to make copies of the DNA you have so that one piece of DNA is converted into a lot more. Put some dye on it, load it onto a gel, energize that gel and wait for an hour or two.
You should get a picture similar to this:
This picture above is mine, but it’s not the one we got from analyzing the plants (this is from an experiment where we determined the color of mice whose DNA we had been given). Why am I not showing you the picture we got from the plants?
Because there is no damn picture.
The process described above took two days (because of how everything was organized, it could have been done in a day). And in the end, we got nothing. Why? Because someone apparently gave us chemicals that didn’t work like they were intended to.
Though luck.
Anyway, after that setback, I went back today, because we started a different experiment: Isolating RNA from the same plants.
RNA is similar to DNA, there are only slight structural and functional differences. And while DNA is usually found as a helix with two strands, RNA normally has only one strand and is thus a lot more fragile.
But hey, I had never done this before, it could be fun!
It wasn’t.
The supervisors had given us the wrong chemicals again.
What do we learn from that?
- Don’t rely on others, even if they’re supposed to be smarter/more experienced than you.
- If you can’t handle frustration, stay far, far, far away from a lab.
So long! See you later - when I come home from another day at the lab.
Sources:
My Brain
Pictures taken from pixabay.com unless stated otherwise
Today’s Suesa’s favorite is: @simulate4life
Every time somebody asks me how to be successful on Steemit, I recommend spending a lot of time in steemit.chat because that’s where you meet people. It’s work, it’s sometimes annoying, but it pays off. @simulate4life (or “Sim”, for those who know him from the chatroom) is a Steemian who joined this December! I was shocked when I realized this because it already seems like he’s been there a while. And he’s been actively posting too!
Did you ever wonder how animals perceive economics? He even participated in my new challenge!
There are still some things he needs to work on, but there’s clearly potential and we should support those with potential!
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research life is tough lol
Actually I also have experience that we had been order the chemical which is contaminated; and another time was having the chemical which is different from what it labelled........... i was like.... dafaq.........
Things get messed..........as usual XDD
Hi @suesa, This added to my curiosity:
How do you look like? You're Steemit Science section celebrity and still we, the fans never saw your photos. Will you be generous enough to deviate a little from your usual pattern and share with you some of your recent photos? Just a humble request. :)
Regarding your post, I myself have been a science student and it reminds me of the college days when we were in the lab. The instructor was away, may be for a date with his favorite colleague in his office (kidding) or for taking tea. Anyway, there was no expert available at that time and someone did the mixing of chemicals in the wrong way and there was a small blast. Thank God, no body was hurt. Through your experience one thing that I have learnt is that the world is a small place and the humans are all the same every where. :D
I've been absent from Steemit for quite some time to I missed many of your scientific posts. However, SBD price has gone up may be because I have come back here at the platform once again and I am pumped up. Isn't it great to have this feeling before the new year starts?
Keep rocking and stay awesome.
Steem On!
Those who have paid attention have seen at least 1/3rd of my face in my Q&A post, those who know me from the chat have at least seen the back of my head :P
I prefer to not show my full face on steemit for the time being.
Alright @suesa. I'll try not to imagine you to be like this lab girl in the pixabay photo. :)
Unfortunately a lot of bench science can be like that. Don't let it get to you. I've had colleagues that went had months-long projects in grad school go nowhere. Just remember that every little bit of training is helpful even if the results don't always work out.
Yeah I resorted to taking a deep breath, bitching a bit and then moving on :D
A bit of bitching seems to help many people :D Some just never move on...
The secret to success: The correct amount of bitching
True that :)
I can relate to your frustration. I thought it was only about my school then, little did I know it is everywhere. I once conducted an experiment for a week and got nothing simply because the chemicals were 'suspected' to have expired, as said by the lab technologist. One week of my life gone just like that. Well, talking about homozygousity and heterozygousity, it goes beyond just donating alleles from the two parents but you have described it well for a layman to understand. Sometimes, recombinations and several other genetic processes take place before a character is manifested.
Of course it's a bit more complicated than I described, the whole post could have been 5k words longer had I properly explained everything :D for now, I think the explanation serves its purpose.
ahahahha my god, I know how that feels xd, during my ongoing education I walked up to problems just like that. There are even times when the supervisor doesn't even know how to solve the given problem in the experiment of the week :'(. There you are, not knowing it either xd
The solution: replace the supervisor :D
For some reason, I read this with a murderous tone...
This was actually my purpose, when writing this :D
Wow, you just took me back a few years ago when I was working at the University of Ghent, studying the cell cycle of plants. It has been so long since I saw a pic of a PCR gel.... nostalgic. Sometimes I really miss being a scientist, though I love working online and having the freedom to work from anywhere in the world!
What a drag! Does it impact your grade when the supervisors give you the wrong chemicals?
I know you say you can't rely on others - but is there anything you could have done in this instance to check the chemicals before you used them? I hope this doesn't fall under the "tough it up, life ain't fair" part of your education!
There's honestly nothing I could have done. Good thing is that I just have to write a good report. It's the lab report that determines my grade.
Thank god, because today everything failed again
Well, you know how to write well, so no problem there! I guess you'd just better be diplomatic when you explain the source of the problems...
Have you read Three Body Problem by Cixin Lu? It starts out with all these physicists getting crazy garbage results because the laws of nature are being messed with by alien interference. Maybe something like that's going on over there in Europe?
Not yet but it sounds fun!
Really highly recommended - the mind-expanding kind of SF that leaves you thinking for days.
Don't rely on people even more experienced than you was my take. I blindly do this all the time. I am sorry about your frustrations queen of science :)
So hot tempered souls are a laboratory hazard? I for one agree I am one. Thank heavens my love for science is based on curiosity not passion like yours!
I totally agree with you on this