An amusing side of working in a lab...
You become accustomed to opening everything with one hand.
My lab mates have teased me endlessly for being "the girl" in the lab, and occasionally I cannot open a jar or bottle of this or that.... Though my argument is that sometimes they tighten it on purpose just to make me fee like a wimp. (I've been lifting weights, it's ok.)
But sometimes one of the most valuable things is holding a pipet, your pinkie wrapped around one tube, your hand curled around another, and using your thumb and forefinger to unscrew the cap. I'm still learning to contort my hands in such a fashion.
But there you are, tired, sitting at the computer, your hand resting on the mouse as you read about the latest Brazilian wax gone awry (seriously...how many people are going to talk about this? If you have no clue...just google it, or I'm sure it's on Digg by now. But it's severely ewww.), and you reach for your bottle of water with some on-the-go packet b/c diet soda causes cancer (like *that* is anything new).... You find yourself mindlessly unscrewing the cap, holding it between forefinger and thumb while you drink from the bottle. And then screw it back on.
There's a beautiful efficiency in that. I still remember countless times in my micro lab class where students would take the cap, set it *on the counter* while they inserted their loop into whatever broth. Yah, like that wasn't contaminated?
All of this is just rambling. Sleep is scary when you're dreaming about reactions with alkynes and which solvent to use. O.Chem over 5 weeks hasn't been a piece of cake. Though I'm sure there are grad students reading this and laughing their asses off. Well, whatever....I'm goin' through it, so I'm feelin' it.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
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2 comments:
You think that's scary? Why, two nights ago I dreamed about confronting Michael Behe with all the problems in The Edge of Evolution. In my sleep, I managed to remember that he (a) left out most of the possible mechanisms of mutation, (b) didn't consider successive beneficial mutations, and (c) muffed the cilium evolution of P. falsiparum.
Of course, later in the dream I discovered that the Institute for Creation Research was actually a front for bioterrorism.
Haha, Nice....That must've been quite gratifying in some respects.
Of course the Institute for Creation Research was a front. They need a backup plan after they use all those nuclear armaments. I'm sure they're working on the 3rd Testament right now...
"And on the fortnight after the blinding lights...we retreated to the darkness, and listened for the command to unleash our modified H5N1..."
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