in further adventures of IDEFK
Mar. 19th, 2013 06:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asimplechordLike, shouldn't having a PhD mean you have some common sense? I'd like to think so. But in my lab, APPARENTLY NOT.
About three and a half weeks ago, Post-doc asked me to order her some gamma-P-32 ATP for a kinase assay. She requested a miniscule amount in a very specific activity, and I explained that I would order the minimum, but that it would be far far more than she needed for one experiment, and that the specific activity would probably be higher since the amount she requested was no longer available in the catalog. But I explained that that should be fine, that just meant she could use less or expose her film for a shorter time. So I ordered it.
Fast forward to this afternoon, when she finally decided to do the experiment and was shocked (SHOCKED) to realize that P-32 has a half-life of approximately 14 days.
...yeah.
AND THEN. I find that she's having problems with her cold ATP solution. Which isn't actually the concentration or the pH she needs it to be because she weighed out a small amount and dissolved it in water, but never adjusted the pH with Tris or phosphate buffer or spec'd it to see what the ACTUAL concentration was, in comparison to the spatula-tip of the salt she weighed out and dissolved.
I just. Seriously? There are entire manuals of how to make basic stock solutions. Or she could've asked. But no.
And what, she thought that P-32 didn't decay?
What.
The.
Fuck.
About three and a half weeks ago, Post-doc asked me to order her some gamma-P-32 ATP for a kinase assay. She requested a miniscule amount in a very specific activity, and I explained that I would order the minimum, but that it would be far far more than she needed for one experiment, and that the specific activity would probably be higher since the amount she requested was no longer available in the catalog. But I explained that that should be fine, that just meant she could use less or expose her film for a shorter time. So I ordered it.
Fast forward to this afternoon, when she finally decided to do the experiment and was shocked (SHOCKED) to realize that P-32 has a half-life of approximately 14 days.
...yeah.
AND THEN. I find that she's having problems with her cold ATP solution. Which isn't actually the concentration or the pH she needs it to be because she weighed out a small amount and dissolved it in water, but never adjusted the pH with Tris or phosphate buffer or spec'd it to see what the ACTUAL concentration was, in comparison to the spatula-tip of the salt she weighed out and dissolved.
I just. Seriously? There are entire manuals of how to make basic stock solutions. Or she could've asked. But no.
And what, she thought that P-32 didn't decay?
What.
The.
Fuck.
