Things I Learned This Week

Here are the things I’ve learned in the past week:

•        It’s mildly complicated running errands and stuff when you’re working 9-5 (especially when the errands involve either banks or the Post Office, since those are usually open from 9-5...) (aka I now have a lot more respect for how my parents managed to get things done when we were little and they drove us everywhere)
•        It’s a good plan to either make sure that you get all the necessary data the first time or save EVERYTHING
•       Project management is super complex (but can be easier if you’re organized)
•        Occasionally things won’t work out how you’re expecting- but that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re doing it wrong.
•        The beach is awesome! (Especially if you’re responsible and manage to cover yourself with sunscreen so you don’t burn in awkward lines down the back of your arm (which I very much failed to do))  

Alright, now explanations...

Re: Running Errands- So Sunday was Father’s Day. (Happy Belated Father’s Day!) In my supreme lack of organization, I put off doing anything until last Monday. This meant that, rather than buying cards/postage when I had time to do so on the weekend, I had to get up early on Monday morning and run to the grocery store to buy cards before work, and then write and send them after work so that they would get to their destinations on time. Luckily, I’m pretty sure they made it to the recipients on time, but it was a bit stressful trying to get to the Post Office before it closed, especially since the one that is right near where I work closes earlier than when I left work that day... so I ended up having to walk an extra mile or so out of my way in order to mail the cards. It was totally worth it, but it kind of made me realize how organized you have to be when you’re working during normal business hours...

Re: Necessary Data/Saving All the Things- When my postdoc was running an experiment last year, she recorded the results, but only genotyped some of the mice she was using, so her results, although accurate, are a bit incomplete. Luckily, she has preserved tissue from the other mice, so we’re going to try to genotype that so that she can get the complete results. Thus, the lesson of today was: either get all the data you could possibly need when doing the tests the first time (even if it seems to be unnecessarily thorough) or (if you have enough space) keep EVERYTHING, so that you can look back through it later.

Re: Project Management- One of the cool things we’re doing right now at pika is that every Sunday after the house meeting, some of us are having a mini-seminar on what goes into project planning/management. The stuff that we’ve learned so far is pretty basic, (how to estimate how much time a project will take, who should be involved in a project, etc.) but even the basic stuff requires a decent level of complexity. That being said, if you can develop a way to keep it all organized, like on a spreadsheet, or via whatever other method you prefer to implement, it can actually be doable. (Fun fact: I almost said manageable there, but decided that was too punny. :P )

Re: Things not working, but doing it right: I finished my first Western Blot test on Thursday, with mixed results. By which I mean pretty much exactly not the results I wanted to see. The Western Blot test is designed to tell you if a protein of interest is present in a given sample. If the protein is present, you should see bands on the membrane that are positioned where you would expect the protein to be. What we saw was no bands. This could have meant two things: either there was no protein present, or the protein we wanted to see was in too low of a concentration to be seen. So, we tested for a different protein on the same membrane, which did show up, and very vibrantly. This meant that the protein we actually cared about probably was present, just in too low of a concentration. So, we went back to the papers (always go back to the papers...) and found that people who had had successful Western Blots for our protein used almost an order of magnitude more than us. Basically, we carried out the test properly, but there are some things we need to do to optimize it. So that’s my task for the next week or two, or however long it takes to figure out whether the protein we want to see is really present in our samples.

Re: The beach- On Saturday, a friend and I took the T (Boston’s subway system) up to Revere Beach, which was about a forty minute ride. That’s probably one of my longest T rides, but it was totally worth it. The weather was perfect for a beach day, and since there’s no school work to worry about during the summer, we had no reason to feel guilty for lying in the sun all day, reading and napping and talking. Which, to be honest, was pretty great. Here, as promised, are some pictures:

Me, slightly hidden behind my friend's bag, because she very nicely included the ocean in the background :)

The beach! So much sand... (this is low tide)

The beach again, with more people. There's also a renegade tent (the colorful thing) which ran me over in its blowing away process. Apparently someone left it, and it decided to blow around the beach...

I was pretty good about putting sunblock on- after 7 hours in the sun, the only place I got burnt was about a 3 inch section on the back of my arms that I apparently couldn't reach... But considering how easily I burn, I'm going to count that as a victory. Also, this seems like an appropriate place to mention my new favorite biology fact: when you burn badly enough to peel, you don't peel because the sun kills a layer of skin. You peel because the sun causes enough DNA damage to the top few layers of skin cells that they can't replicate properly and they undergo apoptosis (programmed cell death) before they can turn into cancer. Your skin cells are basically sacrificing themselves for the greater good of your body, which I think is pretty darn awesome. (Yes, I know, I'm a total nerd...)

And here’s a bonus picture that I took today- double rainbow! This happened right after a thunderstorm, so it was a pretty cool juxtaposition between the destructive power of nature and its beauty. I also really like how the sky looks so much lighter on one side of the rainbow than the other.