THE PCR FLASH (Lab drama part1)

 

A brief flashback to the first time I did PCR !!men 😂😂😂!!!! even the memories make me laugh! We spent the whole day trying to run less than 10 samples (don't ask how) and  the fact that we only needed 1 microlitre of DNA did not sit well with me, and you can imagine how small 1 microlitre is! You see, I could not believe that the pipette had already picked up 1 microlitre, so I kept reaching for the Eppendoff tube. I remember watching the postdoc and wondering how many times he did that to be so fast! I remember that we added 400 microlitres of distilled water to the DNA sample instead of 100 (we felt 100 was too small to be  100) and that I designed so many primers because I was not sure if any of them would work. I bet if someone woke me up from sleep during that time, I would probably say "primers" or "annealing temperature" or the amount of agarose powder I should weigh. 

I remember exclaming to my supervisor when my primers finally worked, and he rejoiced as if I had told him I had just published an article in Nature. 

I also remember older PhD students laughing at a mistake of mine instead of correcting it (that lowered my self-esteem). 

Look, I am not trying to shame anyone here or glorify my PCR speed (might change my name to  THE PCR FLASH), just to let you know  your knowledge won't depreciate by teaching others! probably a new grad student will come to your lab in the autumn semester and you will be asked to teach them a thing or two, even if it is something as simple as "how to drink water", teach with a smile.

xoxo

Your favorite scientist 

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