Lab cleanliness without broom and dust

Labs are normally cleaned by contracted company and their employees use different methods to remove dirt from the floor. The worst method I've seen so far is by using broom to sweep up the dirt. The smaller particles are prone to linger around the air and subsequently land onto benches, bottles, and opened solutions. If you are plating on the same day the floor is swept, you will realize that the plates will get contaminated with fungi the next day (if you are lucky). That's how bad sweeping in the lab is.

The best way to prevent unsettling dust and contaminating the air in the lab is to use electrostatic fabric that will attract dusts and which can be subsequently disposed of.

Minimum information about an experiment (MIAxE)

Minimum information about an experiment (MIAxE) is a publication standard to provide necessary information for other labs to be able to replicate the published experiment.

There are currently two well-known MIAxEs: Minimum information about qPCR experiment (MIAQE or MIQE) and minimum information about microarray experiment (MIAME).

I hope there will be other standards to facilitate other labs to validate published results in respected journals. There shouldn't be excuses as to why some experiments can't be replicated. Although biological system is unpredictable (sometimes) or variable (most of the time), these variabilities wouldn't be to huge to prevent reproducibility of results.

Regret is when you don't do anything about your regrets

We have our regrets, but as long as we are alive. Regrets are transient. There is never a too-late for anything, even when time is running out. 

Just don't give up...

Biology is akin to History, but worst...

Thought you hated History? What's with events and sequence of events and the numbering in years etc.? Drives you crazy, no? 

Biology is worst. If you are into genes and its function in signaling pathways, you will need to pull your hair. Let me explain.. 

In history, a historical person such as Napoleon is none other than Napoleon. In Biology, a gene can have shitty lot of aliases and these names were amended several times in history. Try searching in the archive for a gene and it will kill you prematurely because you will "vomit blood" (due to extreme trauma to the heart). Also, you have Napoleon 1, 2, 3, 4 and a hell lot more that is involved in different aspect of event. They are cousins that are expressed in different spatiotemporal fashion and they might co-mingle at a niche. Confused?

It doesn't end. A gene in an event interacts with other genes, and each of the latter genes has its own aliases, cousins, twins etc.. Worst, each of the above genes has a function (or functional classification) and these too are historically amended. Imagine calling Napoleon as a Commander (analogy to function) in a period and then calling him again as Napoleon the "killer". In Biology, you also cluster genes together and then de-cluster them or overhaul the entire classification. The list is so long....

The ultimate worst scenario of all is that, there are gazillion historians (biologists) writing accounts of their studies. Your head will explode going through all these accounts, or venturing into unfamiliar territory...

Bioinformatics helped, but not enough. Google helped but not good enough. That's because gene acronyms sometimes clashes and bring hell to the reader. 

So, Biology is fun if you are into history and have the knack and liking in decoding...

Feeling nauseated while writing thesis

Symptoms include hair pulling, cursing, jumping up and down for no apparent reason, palpitation, increased myopia, rocketing astigmatism, migraine and the associated paracetamol addiction, sleeplessness, cold sweat, head banging rage, severe denial syndrome, panic attack, extremely claustrophobic (after being cooped up and fixated in front of computer), giddiness, obese (such irony, the more you are stressed, the faster you gain fat especial when food is not a problem), uncontrolled deterioration of body odor (shower can't help, it's the hormone), bad breath (that can kill vermin), susceptible to procrastination, bored, hungry, and etc.

Prognosis is not good... 

The only treatment is to get over with it before permanent head damage progresses to being a veggie..

Oh heaven, please have some mercy...

Don't pent up negative energy from lab..

And blow it up on loved ones at home (who are clueless and innocent).

Show of hand, how many are guilty?

I am.

Just because they love you don't give you the right to misuse their love to vent out your frustrations and all other negative energy onto them...

You should (or I should) be giving it directly to the person who are making you feel down in the office (or lab)... except to your boss of course (unless you have found a new job)...

Give it straight to the person making you feeling down by telling him/her off. Give a piece of your mind rather than swallow it hard and blow up later. Don't be the implosive type.

You can be nice but firm in your stand and protect yourself from being led downward. Say "no" more often and mean it when you say "yes".

Good luck..

There is a reason for not labeling properly in the lab

The first time I encountered such example would be in the common cold room. A stretch of LB antibiotic plates were placed nicely on a rack. At the bottom pasted a note reading, "use at your own risk, plates not labeled as it was meant to".

I scratched my head seeking for a reason. It never took long to figure out that the note was meant for other "unauthorized" users. It is also very likely that this person had been victim of pilfer for a long time and it reached the threshold of being calm to irritation for him/her.

Rule: "Use and let use" means to replace what you took from others and don't be a parasite.

I have adopted this approach (mislabel or unlabel) not long after. That started when I realized that the solutions I prepared not long ago were pilfered and I was left with insufficient amount at the most crucial time of the experiment. It is upsetting, no?