I just can’t resist. The cat’s away for more than a week, which just happens to coincide with a big genome-wide screen I’ve been putting off for a few weeks. As there’s no one waiting at home for a nice dinner, why not go a bit mad in the lab? It will be just like the old days, staying late and sacrificing everything for my Art. I might even achieve at least one all-nighter like our new French post-doc, who stayed welded to a confocal microscope for 36 hours the other weekend (I knew immediately something was wrong the moment I saw him in the lab at 9 a.m. on a Monday morning). All in the pursuit of knowledge, mind – not to make the rest of us postdocs look bad.
All hail to the mighty WellMate, mistress of aliquotification
To be honest, I’m not sure I’ve still got the stamina of yore, especially with my current nasty head cold. The Biomek, alas, is out of action – but this little beauty is going to help me all she can. Behold the Matrix WellMate, which can fill 384 wells with a defined amount of liquid in about four seconds. Isn’t she lovely? She makes a multichannel pipette look like an Ancient Greek pottery shard. With the Matrix WellMate, I don’t need to be afraid, or alone. My life has purpose, meaning. My soul can float to the top of the lab, free of all earthly encumbrances.
Or is that just the antihistamines again?
Wish me luck!
One of the reasons junior doctors have had their hours reduced was that it was acknowldeged that lack of sleep makes for poorer judgements. Can’t you leave the allnight action to the Biomek, when it and you are fit and well?
Oh, and good luck!
Scott, you’re such a sweetie. To be honest, I’m not expecting an all-nighter, mainly because this experiment has a lot of stopping points built in. If I have a choice of swanning off to supper and a good episode of Spooks or Heroes, and carrying on to the next stop, I’m definitely outta here. My brain doesn’t function well after 7 PM (though is sharp as a pin at 5 AM). The experiment will cost over a thousand pounds in reagents, so I don’t want to make any stupid mistakes!
why not ask help from friends and/or colleague of your lab?
Already have! At one stage we’re going to have a good old-fashioned assembly line going. It has to be said that the lab is fantastic about things like this, very friendly and helpful.
Good job!