Just had to ring my dear old Dad on the look out for some western blotting film which I (in)conveniently left in my scanner at home...
Dad: "What would you like me to do with it?"
Me: "Keep it! It's a good result."
Dad: "Just looks like blue film with black smudges to me."
Me: "Yeah well it means more than it seems."
:)
Tuesday, July 8, 2008
“If I'd known how much packing I'd have to do, I'd have run again.”
I hate packing.
Even when I'm just packing for a weekend away I always end up feeling uneasy... just a lil queasiness in the tummy.... and it's always telling me that I've forgotten something. Even when I've been through my mental check list a hundred times
Undies ................. check
PJs ....................... check
Clothes ................ check
Toothbrush ......... check
I still think there is something, something important, that I'm missing! I don't know why. However once I'm at my destination the feeling passes and I go on living my life in happy blissfulness.
I had to repack for MIF last night. I had all my stuff in a relatively large (& heavy) sports bag however had then discovered we may be staying in shared dormitories(!!) where I would need to lock up my bag and also that I apparently wasn't going to be able to park on site... which means I'd need to lug my bags from the car to the school. So I pulled out Mum's suitcase... it's lockable and has wheels!! It's also the smallest suitcase in the house... though it was actually a lot bigger than I remember. I look like I've packed for a few weeks instead of a few days! I still feel like I've forgotten something (not sure what!) but I also feel like I've overpacked as well... there is no winning with my brain.
Last night I also received acceptance for my ANZBMS abstract. However... this paragraph:
"Your work has been highly valued by this stringent peer review system. Since your work is expected to receive a lot of attention at the scientific meeting, the ANZBMS Council asks that you take considerable care with its presentation."
SCARES ME!
I'm hoping that it comes standard with every abstract acceptance! (I'm waiting for Mahvash to get hers!)
Even when I'm just packing for a weekend away I always end up feeling uneasy... just a lil queasiness in the tummy.... and it's always telling me that I've forgotten something. Even when I've been through my mental check list a hundred times
Undies ................. check
PJs ....................... check
Clothes ................ check
Toothbrush ......... check
I still think there is something, something important, that I'm missing! I don't know why. However once I'm at my destination the feeling passes and I go on living my life in happy blissfulness.
I had to repack for MIF last night. I had all my stuff in a relatively large (& heavy) sports bag however had then discovered we may be staying in shared dormitories(!!) where I would need to lock up my bag and also that I apparently wasn't going to be able to park on site... which means I'd need to lug my bags from the car to the school. So I pulled out Mum's suitcase... it's lockable and has wheels!! It's also the smallest suitcase in the house... though it was actually a lot bigger than I remember. I look like I've packed for a few weeks instead of a few days! I still feel like I've forgotten something (not sure what!) but I also feel like I've overpacked as well... there is no winning with my brain.
Last night I also received acceptance for my ANZBMS abstract. However... this paragraph:
"Your work has been highly valued by this stringent peer review system. Since your work is expected to receive a lot of attention at the scientific meeting, the ANZBMS Council asks that you take considerable care with its presentation."
SCARES ME!
I'm hoping that it comes standard with every abstract acceptance! (I'm waiting for Mahvash to get hers!)
Monday, July 7, 2008
"The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds the most discoveries, is not "Eureka!" but 'Hmmm...That's funny...'"
Slight excitement in the lab a few weeks ago - I've finally managed to get my Western Blots to a standard AC is happy with! *yay!* Even more importantly I have a result which supports our hypothesis... As you can see in the image below the two test bands (circled in green) are between the negative control (red bands) and positive control (blue bands). The 'negative' control shows my mature receptor with full glycosylation, while the 'positive' control shows the deglycosylated receptor... as my test bands are in the middle it seems to indicate there may be partial deglycosylation of the receptor which is affecting it function!
However, like everything is science, it now has to be repeated ad nauseum to prove that this was not just a fluke result!! But fingers crossed!
In other, not so exciting, news the microscope is still out of action. Turns out, what we though was just a dud bulb is actually a faulty power supply - so we now have to wait for a new one to arrive from the US and have it installed.... *sighs* I'm hoping we'll have it up and running before the end of this month.
On top of that - I've now seriously started making some headway with the review AC and I are writing. The plan is complete - so now here comes the fun part... actually writing it! AC thinks I should be able to write ~1 pg a day/ 5-6 pgs a week.... I think he's delusional... but as it does have to be done by the end of the month.... I should probably attempt to keep on schedule...
(wish me luck!)
On top of this I'm taking a mini-holiday this week as I'm off to the Marist International Festival (or MIF) which I'm extremely looking forward to. As it's unlikely I'll be attending WYD, this is as close to the festivities as I'll be getting.. but oh well - it should still be awesome!! :D
However, like everything is science, it now has to be repeated ad nauseum to prove that this was not just a fluke result!! But fingers crossed!In other, not so exciting, news the microscope is still out of action. Turns out, what we though was just a dud bulb is actually a faulty power supply - so we now have to wait for a new one to arrive from the US and have it installed.... *sighs* I'm hoping we'll have it up and running before the end of this month.
On top of that - I've now seriously started making some headway with the review AC and I are writing. The plan is complete - so now here comes the fun part... actually writing it! AC thinks I should be able to write ~1 pg a day/ 5-6 pgs a week.... I think he's delusional... but as it does have to be done by the end of the month.... I should probably attempt to keep on schedule...
(wish me luck!)
On top of this I'm taking a mini-holiday this week as I'm off to the Marist International Festival (or MIF) which I'm extremely looking forward to. As it's unlikely I'll be attending WYD, this is as close to the festivities as I'll be getting.. but oh well - it should still be awesome!! :D
Monday, June 2, 2008
Busy... yet not
So it's been kinda of a weird time in the lab recently - while my microscope is STILL out of commission I have been busy with lots of molecular biology/western blotting stuff. So it hasn't been a total holiday but it has been quieter than normal.
We've been trying very hard to get the Gateway Cloning system up and running but we have run into a few problems - mainly getting our AttB PCR amplifications to work. We've redesigned so of the primers so hopefully that'll work. When I did actually get them to work, VA (our new postdoc) accidentally told me the wrong antibiotic to grow our transformed colonies... so as you can imagine that wasn't very successful! But hopefully once the new primers arrive it'll be onwards and upwards.
Thursday and Friday of last week were pretty hectic as I discovered I had to write an abstract for the ANZBMS conference by Sunday. I spent most of Thursday hurriedly crunching numbers so I could write it up on Friday - however all was in vain as they extended the deadline till next Monday! But at least it's now out of the way. It's currently with AC and I'm sure I'll be receiving my first round of revisions very soon!
The other exciting thing I've been doing is organising my ASBMR conference trip in September. The conference is in Montreal, Canada which is very exciting. I already have my accommodation organised and I'm planning on booking my flights by the end of this week. I discovered that it's going to be cheaper to fly home via New York... which I will definitely be taking advantage of! I've put a reservation on a hotel room in NYC for 3 nights, which is very exciting, hopefully I can
get to visit a lot of famous landmarks while I'm over there. I'm also hoping that I can see a show on Broadway... I really really really want to see Avenue Q - so I may book a ticket in a month or so to go see it while I'm over there.
We've been trying very hard to get the Gateway Cloning system up and running but we have run into a few problems - mainly getting our AttB PCR amplifications to work. We've redesigned so of the primers so hopefully that'll work. When I did actually get them to work, VA (our new postdoc) accidentally told me the wrong antibiotic to grow our transformed colonies... so as you can imagine that wasn't very successful! But hopefully once the new primers arrive it'll be onwards and upwards.
Thursday and Friday of last week were pretty hectic as I discovered I had to write an abstract for the ANZBMS conference by Sunday. I spent most of Thursday hurriedly crunching numbers so I could write it up on Friday - however all was in vain as they extended the deadline till next Monday! But at least it's now out of the way. It's currently with AC and I'm sure I'll be receiving my first round of revisions very soon!
The other exciting thing I've been doing is organising my ASBMR conference trip in September. The conference is in Montreal, Canada which is very exciting. I already have my accommodation organised and I'm planning on booking my flights by the end of this week. I discovered that it's going to be cheaper to fly home via New York... which I will definitely be taking advantage of! I've put a reservation on a hotel room in NYC for 3 nights, which is very exciting, hopefully I can
get to visit a lot of famous landmarks while I'm over there. I'm also hoping that I can see a show on Broadway... I really really really want to see Avenue Q - so I may book a ticket in a month or so to go see it while I'm over there.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Monday, May 19, 2008
Phew!
Came in a little late yesterday morning to find an email from the boss...
"Dear SB,
I have a couple of things I would like to talk about.
Are you available for a meeting at say 12 noon today (Monday) ?
Best Regards,
AC"
My instant thought was... "Oh Crap!! I'm in trouble!"
I then started to think of reasons for my poor work output over the past few weeks... (mainly centered around the broken microscope!)
All in vain though - he just wants me to write a review with him... *sigh* more work!
"Dear SB,
I have a couple of things I would like to talk about.
Are you available for a meeting at say 12 noon today (Monday) ?
Best Regards,
AC"
My instant thought was... "Oh Crap!! I'm in trouble!"
I then started to think of reasons for my poor work output over the past few weeks... (mainly centered around the broken microscope!)
All in vain though - he just wants me to write a review with him... *sigh* more work!
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Hey Mum! Look what I made!!
Playing around with GIMP today! GIMP is a FREE image manipulation program... and you can get it at http://www.gimp.org/
I decided to learn about selective colourisation through their tutorial section (www.gimp.org/tutorials/... turned out pretty well!
I decided to learn about selective colourisation through their tutorial section (www.gimp.org/tutorials/... turned out pretty well!
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