w00t!
I did a 12-sample DNA extraction yesterday, ran it out on a gel today... and ALL TWELVE WORKED. Woo!! I am the World's Greatest Evolutionary Biologist!!

Also: some PCRs are working well, and the ones that are not...well, we're just not talking about those. Somebody else's problem (with that somebody being myself in a few days, poor sucker). I'm trying to figure out how to use trnC/D on my species - trnC/D bands come out at around 800 bp, while trnC/petN2 comes out at 1000. Figure that one out!! Tomorrow I go sampling at a nifty place but am reluctant to mention where just yet. Potentially publishable cageyness, in case some academic competition stumbles across this. Annoying but true! Thursday I may also get some samples, but more importantly I'll get some information. I'm slowly putting together an interesting story, one geographic location at a time, and tracking down the people who know the pieces is a big but entertaining job.

Got my TA assignment for the fall - I'll be doing Homeostasis with a P(rofessor)TBNL. Not that I have a burning desire to teach that subject, but it fits my schedule and apparently you have to bribe someone (or worse!) to get a genetics class around here. On the plus side, I'll finally learn some plant phys. On the minus side, endocrine systems! Ugh!!!
- posted by Diane @ 5:03 PM