I always said I'd post light hearted and positive posts, but since it's Friday the 13th and several things have already gone wrong for me today...I'm going to make a list of the most annoying/mundane/monotonous tasks in the lab that I wish I could get someone else to do for me! (That's a bit of a fib - I don't mind doing these things, but they always have to be done at the most inconvenient time so perhaps 2 spare arms to help me get them done would be the best solution).1. Aliquot-ing.
2. pHing buffers.
3. Washing 2 units of platelets (don't ask).
4. Refilling tips boxes manually (one by one).
5. Searching in the -80 freezer for a box/sample that you know you left at the front on the left in the middle shelf but somehow mysteriously it has moved/vanished.
Let me know your least favourite lab tasks that are trivial or boring-but must be done for a fully functional and operational experiment/laboratory!
Rachel xxx
PS I feel a lot better after that rant-blogging can be cathartic! And I also have to say that I love my job & I wouldn't change it for the world...but seriously, a few spare arms would be very very handy once in a while ;)
What an annoying list!You have, however, omitted what I consider to be the most annoying lab task of all:
ReplyDeletewriting up experiments . . . . . .WHICH DIDN'T EVEN WORK!!!!!!!!!!!
Very few things are as depressing as spending an afternoon carefully documenting your most recent failure. I think I'd even rather pH buffers!!
You hit the nail on the head Eimear, no matter how long you're working on a project or tackling a particular experiment, it never gets any easier to write pages upon pages of how something failed miserably: why I think it went wrong, what I'm going to do differently next time...chances are I have no idea how to answer those questions anyway, ha!
ReplyDeleteThe joys of PhD-ing...I've stopped writing in my lab book altogether, pretty prism files can do all the talking for me from now on ;)
Eimear says it all! But you forgot to mention going to the fridge to coat a plate only to realise that the last person to use the carbonate buffer only left a few drops so you get stuck making up more. GRRRRR!
ReplyDeleteSerial dilutions are the pits!
ReplyDelete2FM Golden Hour makes it even more annoying!
Except for Jimmy Nail, obviously.