December 21, 2011

• alexa fluor 488

  Put your heart back in your pocket;
  pick your love up off the floor. 

  - Mika, Pick Up Off The Floor

  -+-

  "Look at Christa, she's still laughing!"
  "Well, of course Christa would be.  After all, it rains when Christa cries.  No, scratch that, it snows when Christa cries."
  "Hey, I want snow!  I want to go skiing!  CRY, CHRISTA!”

  I love my lab.  Somehow, it still shocks me when they express their affection for me.  I always feel so privileged to be the bunt of every joke.  More often than I should, I dare to think that I'm no one, that I'm no one special.  My lab always proves me wrong, time and time again.

  A grad student pointed out that next semester, I'm going to become the senior undergraduate of the lab -- the undergraduate that's been working there longest out of everyone.  I didn't realize it until that moment.

  The Veteran.

  -+-

  My optometrist took out a bottle of eye drops, and explained to me, "This will stain your eyes to allow me to see them better.  Ha, it's kind of like running a gel!"  

  When I realized that he was referencing my laboratory research, I blushed at the ethidium bromide reference.  On the inside, a marching band was playing.  I was so stoked that I understood his joke.  It was the same marching band that played at the celebration of the first full science conversation that I could follow from start to finish.  TRIzol may have ruined my grad student's data, but because I understood her every complaint about TRIzol, it will forever have a warm place in my heart.

  After I left the optometrist's office, I made a detour to buy a bottle of sparkling cider, and poured myself a lukewarm glass the moment I returned to my empty home.  I picked up my coffee mug off my table and gave myself a silent toast.  Today, after all, was a day worth celebrating.

  I finally experienced it: a scientific breakthrough.  My post-doc and I made a huge achievement in our project today, and it was my hands that implemented the protocol.  We finally optimized one of our analysis protocols, a goal that my post-doc has been hoping to achieve long before I joined the lab.  It's hard to imagine that it was my hands that cultured the insulinoma cells that we analyzed, and it was my hands that performed the tailored two-day immunofluoresence protocol that ended with my post-doc leaping out of his chair to hug me, that ended with laughter and smiles ringing throughout the microscopy room, that ended with "Congratulations!" all around.

  I never would have expected that such a barren town, empty after the completion of fall semester, could provide me with such a beautiful day.  Because seeing those cells, punctated with gorgeous green spots of Alexa Fluor 488 dye, reaffirming my proficiency in the lab, reaffirming everything that I love about scientific inquiry, was nothing short of beautiful.

  • 10:31 pm
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