Now that I am almost done with graduate school (and no closer to figuring out what I am going to be when I grow up), I find myself inventorying all the skills and talents that I have developed in lab over the (many many) years. Besides the obvious critical thinking skills and greater resistance to defeat, I also have freakishly strong hands and apparently, a good eye.
Next in the long list of random lab skills and talents is a finely tuned eye for volumes. I can look at an Eppendorf tube and tell within 5 microliters how much liquid it contains. I can tell 10 mL from 15 at the bottom of a bottle and 1 mL from 1.5 in the well of a 6 well plate. I know if a tube has as much as I need or if I will be short. The task is complicated by frozen liquids, of course, and their completely misleading change in volume, but I have had success even in that tough circumstance.
You wouldn’t think that telling 800uL from 750uL is terribly important, but when every channel on your timer is counting down and a meeting with the advisor is only minutes away, it becomes a matter of life and death.
I don’t know if this volume estimating skill will ever be useful to me down the line (other than judging how many glasses of wine remain in the bottle, of course – I am really good at that too).
Stay tuned for the next installment in the series “My Weird Talents.” Let me know if you have any of your own. We can compare and contrast.
I found a combination lock in the street this morning as I walked to work. It was locked open with the combination scrambled.
But I was able, in about two minutes, to crack the combination, just by feeling the rings and the pins click. Maybe that’s from sensitive Gilson fingers?
From undergraduate microbiology back in the 1980s when AIDS was hardly a rumor and Hox genes had only just been invented I acquired the skill of being able to hold and manipulate several different objects simultaneously without any of them touching the table-top. I still have that skill. But Anna, this sensation of not knowing what you want to be when you grow up never leaves you.
Judging from the picture, you also have a talent for building gumshields for dinosaurs.
Richard – I don’t know if my fingers have gained that level of sensitivity through lab work. Are you sure this had nothing to do with safe cracking/bank robbing experience on your end?
Henry – You have no idea how comforting it is to hear that I am not alone in not having my life neat and organized. I am feeling quite a bit of pressure to have everything figured out and arranged and, well, that just ain’t happening at the moment. Whew. I feel a blog post coming on.
Matt – Aah, the many uses of lab tape. I am a lab MacGyver, in my own right.
I know at least 7 different tip racking patterns to help stave off mind-crushing boredom…
I am feeling quite a bit of pressure to have everything figured out and arranged and, well, that just ain’t happening at the moment.
The time for that is when you find yourself singing the words to My Way, and not before :)
Hmmm. One weird skill I got from my Ph.D. was being able to think like mildew.
I learned to dance on Tigrinya music
Cath – I know a lot of people that pay attention to their tip usage. Have you seen this blog post about tips? I am impressed by 7 patterns, I have to say. I am way too haphazard to keep track.
Henry – Well, good. Guess I am in for a wait.
Bob – Does mildew think? That’s depressing. I am not sure why, but it is. I never figured out how to think like herpes. That may be a good thing.
Raf – You win. Your talent is the most fun and the coolest. Way better than eyeballing volumes. Am feeling kind of lame right now.