Oh, how the mighty have fallen
Last week, I was cranking out sequences almost faster than I could analyze them. I was the biggest laboratory rock star you have ever seen, complete with pyrotechnics and guitar solos, and I fantasized about the world-changing breakthroughs I would make this semester.

And then: I unlearned how to make a sequencing gel. I made four in a row that just would NOT polymerize; after the requisite two hours, I pulled out the comb and all the gel poured out with it. I've ruled out nearly every chemical (two more to test, next Monday). My labmate's gels work just fine. The corrupting variable appears to be ME. wtf?!?

So I didn't feel entirely useless, I did extra PCRs, which all worked beautifully. Now I have this massive backlog of DNA that needs to be sequenced, which of course I am incapable of doing. Smart.

On the plus side, my laptop is back home after a month at Laptop Camp, which is like Fat Camp only instead of losing pounds you lose defective motherboards and hinges. As a bonus, they somehow managed to do the work without wiping my hard drive, which saves me many hours of reinstallations. Good-bye, obnoxious Mac computers!
- posted by Diane @ 2:26 PM