Why You Gotta Be a Fool? Don't You Know I'm Human Too

Wow, a lot has happened this week. Although I got rejected from my "reach" schools, I still have quite a few options for colleges. I'm having a tough time deciding what to do. I wish I could see into the future, but I suppose life is more fun when it's surprising.

Anyways, it's amazing how much can change in a few weeks - and how much stays the same. I'm glad to be back in the lab, actually doing something. (As an added bonus, it keeps my mind from over-stressing about college decisions.) But, early Monday morning, still groggy from getting up at 4am, I walked into the lab hallway to be greeted with a sign. You know it's a Monday when you see this:

How, exactly, you can close a hallway, I'll never know.

I didn't want to walk through that hallway, anyways. Thanks for asking.

I tried to make more liposomes on Monday, but in hindsight, I should've just waited. I spent at least an hour preparing my lipids and M2 proteins, and everything was going fine. I was even told that we got more internal buffer (it was running out before I left. I actually thought we weren't going to have any when I returned). Unfortunately, somebody didn't put the red tape back onto the internal buffer.

So I may or may not have put 1M NaOH into my lipids instead of internal buffer. Whoops. (I'm sorry, liposomes. I failed you.) How can such a small change of tape color make such a difference.... (I know, I know, I should've read the label on the bottle, but I wasn't expecting it to change.) At least this mistake shows that I am, indeed, human.

I was also told that we had three working pH meters now. Sadly, I ended up doing my tests - or at least trying to do them - on April Fool's day. I feel like the world wanted to prank me, so, naturally, all three pH meters weren't working. I mean, I know computers don't like me, but can't pH meters at least tolerate me? (Is that too much to ask for?) So Wednesday was spent trying to make them less noisy and less drifty, with moderate success.

On the bright side, some of the pranks I saw were highly amusing. Especially this one.

Notice how there are posters and even a lamp.

What are the handrails doing in an office, you might ask. This "office" is actually an elevator, and the teacher spent his day greeting unsuspecting students as if they had all come to his office hours. (I suppose that's one way to get a higher turn-up for office hours....)

On Thursday, only one pH meter was working (I really shouldn't be surprised), which meant it was a long day. One of the pH meters had almost no noise, and I was excited to use it. It wasn't meant to be, however. I discovered that if I leaned on the table, the two new pH meters would exhibit "artifacts," basically spikes in the pH readings that are not from pH changes in the solution. I thought I was onto something important, until my uncle informed me that this effect was common in pH meters.

Basically, my body was acting as magnetic field, which interfered with the voltage readings from the pH meters. To solve this, we have to ground ourselves, or the pH meters. (One solution involved me wearing a metal bracelet, which was strapped to some kind of "ground." I felt like I was chained to my experiment....) I don't think we've found a permanent solution yet, but I hope that we're on our way. It's odd that only the new pH meters are affected by my proximity. (Such is new technology, I suppose.)

Speaking of new technology, when I was gone, my lab decided to update the Windows 2000 computer, which is the computer that records all the pH changes. This lab must be allergic to new technology or something, because apparently the new program crashed, and brought down the program I used with it. Thankfully, we had another similar - and older - program that I now use.

Don't worry, though - this means that the Computer Says game just became more interesting! Only now, the correct information isn't even displayed on the computer; I had it written in my lab notebook somewhere.... The computer beeps one sometimes, usually before it thinks I'm supposed to do something, then kindly beeps three times ten seconds later. I think I'm becoming more adept at ignoring the beeps. (And this is coming from someone who rushes to get everything out of the fridge before the fridge beeps as a reminder that it's been left open.)

In other news, my results from testing AK40 again were inconclusive. Sometimes, it seemed like I had drug, and sometimes the drug was suspiciously absent. I suppose I should've seen this one coming; the drug was hard to get into solution. My mentor thinks that there was a very small amount of drug precipitate that wasn't in solution. So, only one thing to do from here: make more liposomes.

On the bright side, at least my graph from AK11 (the first drug I tested) still looks nice.

Until next time!
- Lauren