Research-related difficulties

[jlamacc1]

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Does anyone else here feel like one of their research-related weaknesses is making ultra-dumb mistakes (like forgetting to connect an HPLC column before a run) during long, multi-step procedures? I just found out that I lost the majority of a fluorophore(expensive)-tagged protein because a crucial step "slipped my mind" - nothing that required any thinking, just one mundane manual task - and I'm feeling like a complete idiot. I typically have no trouble with the "thinking aspect" of research, but the technique is where I fall short...anyway, misery loves company, so I'd love to hear from all of ya.

 

[NGN47]

Yeah, that is why it is called "Re-Search", and again...and again, and not just, "search one time" or something like that. Yes, I have made stupid errors that cost time! That is no consolation however...

 

[MahlerROCKS]

One of my PIs told me a story of one of her mishaps during her postdoc: she arrived at her lab later than she wanted, she botched the set-up of her overnight experiment, she spilled a stock solution, and then proceeded to drop and shatter a flask that she was pouring the solution into--her only remedy was to take the day off. Sometimes you just have bad days. Just remember to always try and smile, and hopefully better luck will come to you

 

[mtlove]

Does anyone else here feel like one of their research-related weaknesses is making ultra-dumb mistakes (like forgetting to connect an HPLC column before a run) during long, multi-step procedures? I just found out that I lost the majority of a fluorophore(expensive)-tagged protein because a crucial step "slipped my mind" - nothing that required any thinking, just one mundane manual task - and I'm feeling like a complete idiot. I typically have no trouble with the "thinking aspect" of research, but the technique is where I fall short...anyway, misery loves company, so I'd love to hear from all of ya.

My PI is a national academy of science member. He is awful in the lab and he definately is not an experimentalist, so there is hope for those prone to this. I imagine all the best experimentalists do this at times. I definately have!

 

[AndrewB]

I get really frustrated and have bad days. But I guess that's how you learn! I just try not to do the same things twice.

 

[QofQuimica]

Everyone has these days. One time I had just finished purifying a compound; it had taken me a couple of days because it was a large-scale reaction. I was rotovapping off the solvent at the end, all done now except I had to put it on the vacuum pump overnight. Well, I go to take the round bottom flask off the rotovap and it slipped out of my hand, right into the water bath. I had to extract about four liters of filthy water, and rotovap all the solvent down AGAIN before I could go home. I got home a couple of hours later than I thought I'd be, I was cranky because I was going to have to re-chromatograph my stuff the next day, and then to boot I had a huge fight with my ex about why I could never be home when I said I would. Needless to say, it was not the best day of my life. 😛 Plus, my yield wound up being WAY lower than it should have been, and I ended up having to synthesize more compound.

One thing that I find helpful when doing something that is "high-stakes" is to have a checklist. It can be mental, or you can even write it out. Go through the checklist step by step as you set up your experiment. And definitely include "hook up the HPLC column" and "set up the collecting tubes" before "inject the sample" on your checklist. 😉

 

[passion4atcg]

yes, mistakes ALWAYS happen. Just remember that it really does happen to everybody. when i make super dumb mistakes, i write it down in my notebook in bold letters and glance over it before I do that experiment again (later down the road). also, I have a "three strikes, you're out rule" Three dumb things happen in a day-- just put everything down and leave 🙂

 

[durfen]

A lot of the time I think I have a solution to a problem, spend hours,days,weeks perfecting it, only to find a critical flaw that negates all the work done. Live and learn and try again.

 

[QofQuimica]

yes, mistakes ALWAYS happen. Just remember that it really does happen to everybody. when i make super dumb mistakes, i write it down in my notebook in bold letters and glance over it before I do that experiment again (later down the road). also, I have a "three strikes, you're out rule" Three dumb things happen in a day-- just put everything down and leave 🙂

That's a really good rule. Sometimes you just need to get out of the lab for a while. 🙂

 

[Flanigan]

Sometimes you never really appreciate just how difficult a "simple" or "mundane" task is until you train a new undergrad. It can take a while for an undergrad to get the hang of things becuase simple tasks actually involve a complicated set of skills an processes that take time to master. After months and years of work it seems simple until you have a "bad day" and for some reason the process just breaks down.

Laugh, and let the world laugh with you. Then take a break and get back to it.

Cheers!

 

[streetlight]

6 hour in utero surgeries --> wait for pups to be born --> perfuse brains and fix overnight --> and then suck up the brains with the vaccuum accidentally while changing the brains out of pfa... 2 weeks literally down the drain...

the frustrations are sometimes debilitating, however, you learn techniques to avoid the stupid mistakes you've made before. for example, now i can switch out brains without having to even come near the brain with the vaccuum...

in short, making the mistakes makes it easier to do the same tasks in the future, as cliche as that sounds.

p.s. i like the three strikes rule!

 

[ClarinetGeek]

I am currently in the middle of my first of two 6 week summer lab rotations after being away from the lab for almost a full year during my first year of med school. In some ways, the adjustment wasn't too bad but still it takes awhile to get those little automatic skill sets back again. Everything feels new. Heck just finding something in a new lab is a challenge. Everything take so much longer. You feel like an idiot.

 

[jlamacc1]

Thanks everybody. Since I started this thread I've had a complete turnaround from that terrible day; I guess I was "due" for some stuff to start going right, and it really has been!

 

[Oak]

Here's my stupid lab error story...
My sophmore year in undergrad, I was trying to make a plasmid to produce a protein i needed for my work - the old fashioned way: restriction enzymes and ligations, none of this new-fangled recombineering stuff. So, after about 3 weeks of struggling to get my ligations and DNA extractions to work, i'm am, at last, maxiprepping up my final plasmid. I get to the step just after you bind the DNA to resin, open up a new bottle of wash solution, and pour it over the column. everything seems to be going according to plan and then, Just as i'm dumping the wash aspirate down the drain, i notice something doesn't seem right: the liquid isn't sitting on top of the sink water like it should and there isn't this characteristic smell that i'm used to...Ethanol! I had forgotten to add ethanol to the wash buffer, eluted my DNA too early, and washed 3 weeks worth of work literally down the drain. Oh well, you live and learn: now, i always smell that solution before i use it.