In an attempt to eat healthy the other day, I bought a block* of Mestemacher Natural Sunflower Seed bread. 

Nope. Not tried it before and my regular loaf was unavailable. So I thought why not. It looked solid and hearty with chunky seeds embedded in each slice. 

I should have known better that something this healthy must taste like crap but I pushed that niggling thought to the recesses of my head. After all, I must start on my new trim and fit exercise routine under trainer M's guidance (Yes! After the applecow, he is on my case!!). 

I can conclude confidently now that yes.. bread that pack a whopping 6 g of fibre per slice taste like cardboard. Its not unpalatable mind you, just...tasteless. And I was almost defeated three quarters way through. I only made it because I had paid SGD4.65 for seven slices and seeing that I have six more to go, I have GOT TO eat it! With crazy inflation going on, wasting this is a big no-no. 

Leaving it around till it turns mouldy isn't an option because of 1) its price and 2) unbelievably long shelf life. It won't expire till October 2008! 

So, I am now saddled with six slices of very-good-for-my-well-being-but-tastes-like-sawdust bread and have to think of how to dispose of it. Ideally in my tummy but perhaps I can offload  a couple of slices to resident germans in the department. Applecow too? But that means I sill have at least three slices to sort out! 

How can I do it? Any tasty sandwich ideas? 

* Why do I call it a 'block' and not 'loaf'? Because it has the weight and dimensions of a brick. Them Germans sure like their bread solid like a rock. 

P.S. I ate a slice (140 calories) with ham and a handful of baby tomatoes 3 hours ago and I AM STILL FULL. This stuff seriously sits in your stomach. 

The lab rat's guide getting away with oops.

One day when I'm no longer a lab rat, I may consider publishing a little handbook titled "How to cut corners in molecular biology and still get results!" 

Anonymously of course, because I imagine there will be some people who may not believe the materials and methods section of my papers anymore if I do that in my real name. 

Of course, I don't cut corners because I'm lazy. I take my wet work very seriously because I'm not a natural white coated lab rat. These short cuts were discovered by accident, much like most significant scientific discoveries. You think Fleming set out to discover penicillin? He found them in a mouldy petri dish left in a tray! 

For example, yesterday was spent in a haze of preparation my samples for sequencing. I started work at 1pm, purifying my amplified products (60 samples, four genes with one gene split into three parts) and re-amplifying samples that had failed the previous day (Yes. I was in the lab on Easter Sunday too. Clocked in eight hours because I have to deliver results for 3 projects by the end of the week.)

I started at 1pm and only finished at 7pm or so. It took a long time because screw ups at this stage means fucked up results with no chance of troubleshooting later on, so its well worth the effort to JUST MAKE SURE nothing gets pipetted to where it shouldn't be later on and labels are written correctly. At the end of the day, they all look the same so its very important to make sure. No cutting corners here, I'm afraid. 

From 7pm to 9.30pm, I was still preparing my sequencing reaction. Its no joke when you have 120 different samples to sequence and each one needs its own mix of reagents. So this part has to be handled with utmost concentration as well. Volumes are also minute - 5 microlitres! That's 0.005 ml per reaction comprising 0.7 microlit of template, 0.4 microlit of primer and 1 microlit of dye and topped up with water. A drop of water is more than 5 μl. I tend not to wear gloves at this stage though, as chances of contamination is almost nil. At 9.30pm, everything is ready and I pop them in the machine for 3 hours of cycle sequencing. 

So, what is the shortcut, I hear you cry. Well.. that comes much later. 12.30am comes around, and its time to purify my precious products. That takes an hour, using the magnetic plate. At this stage, all gloves are off, literally. I don't see the point in wearing gloves when the sequencing products are already tagged with dye so DNA from my finger nail isn't going to show up. I also reuse pipette tips when aspirating supernatant from my ethanol wash at least 4 times before I throw them away. Z and D thinks its a no no - they change it every time for every single well but I guess I don't care so much about it. As long as you keep your tips away from the sides if the tube, it shouldn't be a problem. I've not had any issues so far. 

So all was hunky dory and at 1.15am, I was done and ready to pop my plate into the sequencer. I had two plates and in case you don't know what they look like, here's a picture. 

Each well with a unique sequencing product suspended in water waiting to be read by the sequencer. Almost done, I thought to myself. Just pop it in, click on "run" and results will be waiting for you when you come in tomorrow! 

 

Guess what then. On my way down the the sequencing lab situated in the next building, I noticed air bubbles at the bottom of some wells in one of my plates. I don't know what I was thinking, but I had this notion that it would disappear if I flicked my plate. I probably wasn't thinking at all because I FLICKED MY SEQUENCING PRODUCTS OUT OF THEIR WELLS AND ONTO THE FLOOR. 

Aaaaaaaaargh! OH SHIT. Fuck. OH NO!!! I'm dreaming!!! Somebody slap me! 

There was no damage control to be had. What was left (luckily it was the plate with 20 samples and not 96) was about 10 microlitres in each well.. hardly enough. I thought of abandoning this plate but decided to just sequence it anyway since I've already prepared them. Went back to the lab and topped up them wells with water and walked very carefully to the sequencing lab where I left them for the night. 

Came in today fully expecting my results to be screwed up for the twenty samples but guess what. EVERYTHING WORKED BEEEYOOOTIFULLY! How cool is that! I'm ridiculously happy today because of this.  Maybe its a testament to the sequencing machine too. Well worth the gajillion dollars it cost the department! Thumbs up!

So yeah. A long anecdote to illustrate the fact that screw ups during experiments aren't as disastrous as they appear to be and the short cut being you can lose 80% of your sequencing sample and things will still be fine. No need to get your knickers in a twist, no need to spend another 6 hours sequencing those lost products. Like the PCR reaction where I accidentally got my reaction volumes mixed up and added way too much water thus diluting everything else, I've discovered that some things do still work even if you make mistakes. 

Either that or I'm very lucky.  Yay me anyway! I'm on track for my data collection this week and am due to hunker down for April writing my papers. And viva. Not so yay, that one. 

Notes from the field - Phuket

Day 3 in Phuket and A has collected about 25 species of Alpheus spp. Or so he says. I don't know man.. they look the same to me. I ask him to teach me how to id but he doesn't want to.. only telling me to attend the shrimp course in Panama sometime in the summer. Where got time and money! 

We've gotten a really nice place in a quiet neighbourhood off Chaofa road, thanks to Z. I'ts like a hotel/hostel, offering fairly good rates. Tai-tan court. Weekly rent for a two bed room costs 2000 baht. We've managed to convince the lady at the counter to throw in an extra mattress in the room for an extra 500 baht so that's 2 500 baht in total for the 3 of us. Pretty reasonable, with FREE! wifi. However, electricity costs 5 baht per unit (whatever 'unit' means) and I will wait till later to check how much it adds up. 

Ate at the chicken place with M last night as A had to stay in to process his shrimps. Mmmm.. chicken place. I wish Z and Applecow were around too.. we would have gone crazy with everything! Have to remember to drop by on Friday night to ta-pow for the girls. 

Rawai beach yesterday and Karon today. The Russians have indeed invaded Phuket. A managed to buy some booties (that actually fit his 45/46 feet) by walking into a dive shop and chatting up a young Russian fler. Now I get the brunt of  A's teasing.. all this talk of going to Chalong Bay and inviting Andre for walks and what not. I think that A is the one interested in him. Mwuahaha. A thinks its much better if everyone thinks he is gay. Less problems.  M took pictures of sagging breasts and rolls of flab of orange westerners today. Perve! 

Am waiting for A to finish up with his shrimp photography. We skipped lunch today. Am heading out for dinner and a nightwalk perhaps.

  

I've had on and off misgivings about undergrads and their misplaced sense of entitlement, but what happened today took levels to a new low. 

It was a relatively peaceful afternoon and 4 PGs were at our benches, working. The door was unlocked. 

In walked two UGs (Hons year, so they, of all people, should know better, but I suppose I am giving them too much credit) did not bother to acknowledge NNK who was sitting right by the door (with her back facing it) and S, who was sitting out in the middle of the lab, visible to all. They put their bags down on the couch, pulled out their computers and proceeded to pull books off our shelves for their literature search within one metre of S. S was new so he didn't ask them what they were up to. 

That's right. No permission asked, no greetings. Just walked in like its the bleddy Science Library and merrily did their thing, short of helping themselves to tea in the pantry.

Needless to say, they were told off in no uncertain terms that this was unacceptable behaviour, in the lab, when they go out to work, basically everywhere, and asked to leave. They are welcome back into the lab next time for their research, I told them, when they've got their manners back, i.e. emailing in advance or walking in and asking someone politely. One of the two, I later learnt, had been in the lab before but his attitude was dismissive and he behaved (according to the PG who let him in) like he had the right to come in and nosy around. 

To give some background, no one in the lab are TAs to the particular module they are taking. They were give a project centred about an aspect of crustacean biology so naturally, the lab is a literal gold mine.  I am personally in contact with one student who corresponded with me and asked if i can have a chat with him and I have let him into the lab to look around our shelves. This is done in my personal capacity as a researcher. I really don't mind, but is basic courtesy really too much to ask of our undergrads nowadays? 

And the writing begins...

Half of February as flown by and I'm ashamed to say that I've broken my resolution of setting aside time every day to write. 

I cannot put it off any longer. I don't know why. I want to write my papers, but every time I turn on my computer, the internet beckons and I end up surfing randomly. Or I see the sheer amount of reading and a thousand an one miscellaneous files to work on and I end up doing all sorts of rubbish displacement activities. 

My current desktop. I know. It's a mess.

Its about time I stop and to do that, I need to focus on the important things at hand. I need to cut myself off from the web and while I can't bear to pull the plug, I can start little by little.

First step - Moving my workspace! I've created another account on the powerbook and this will be my writing room. My safari bookmarks aren't imported here and while that won't stop me from looking around the world wide web once in a while, I hope it will reduce the amount of time I spend online. I can't access email here and there is no IM programme (if you see me online, that's probably because I'm logged in from the original account). 

So what I see in the writing room now is this: 

Stripped down to the essentials. Will my productivity increase? Will I have a draft and a tree to show the boss by the end of this week?

I certainly hope so. Time to fatten up the CV! 

Bags and cups

After 10 fond years, I've finally retired my lite-alp. It could have kept going except its left shoulder strap is unravelling. My fault, really, as I had left it beside a burning joss stick during one of my mad aromatherapy phase and it singed through the strap. 

So the fraying began. That was eighteen months ago. I still use it everyday, esthetics aside, as its tough as nails; only last week I cycled in the rain along the East Coast Park Connecter for at least an hour and a half. Only my electronics were kept in a plastic bag and everything else was not. The bag isn't waterproof anymore, but it still did a great job of keeping water out. My change of clothes were only damp on arrival and still wearable. I almost brought it to France with me the year before last; it was foiled when my mom took a look at me just as I was sailing out of the door, luggage in hand and gasped "You're not going overseas like a beggar!" In the end I took my brother's rucksack. Its big and ugly (although from a very reputable company as well) and the last I saw of it, its zippers have called it a day. 

However, the fraying it getting worse and lite-alp is beginning to show its age. Foam shoulders shrunken and it looks as it the left strap may come undone soon ( I doubt it really, but don't want to be proven wrong at inopportune moments out in the field or commuting to work on the bike). 

So now.. I have a NEW! replacement for Lite-alp!  Check it out. Isn't it a beaut? I'm completely chuffed. Aztec fabric, lots of compartments and great design. Its not cheap though but considering how the lite-alp lasted ten years of rough abuse, this ought to tahan for at least eight (difference between then and now? It used to be manufactured in New Zealand but they've shifted operations to China- so minus two years for that.) 

I find it an irony that I have no idea about women's purses but know exactly what I want in a rucksack. 

***Proceed on if you want to read about women's hygiene product plugs***

Speaking of things that last a very long time, I've also recently taken the plunge and dived into the waters of conscientious and environmentally friendly women's sanitary products. Yep. Applecow tried it out first and it completely changed her life. We're talking about the mooncup here. 

Do you know that the average women uses 11, 000 tampons and pads in her lifetime (do the math yourself). And that's just one person! I digress.. anyway.. Applecow became a mooncup evangelist and a local distributor because as she said "I was talking about it so much that I may as well be a distributor." 

Well said and that's how the BioD girls jumped on the bandwagon. I've used it for my last three cycles and you know... this little thing would have been really useful if I had known about it back when I was doing field work. On some island with no fresh water and questionable sanitation? I think I'll cope better with a mooncup than a pad or even a tampon. 

Of course there is a learning curved involved and that may put off many girls who cringe at the thought of using it (after all, it involves shoving your fingers into the place where erm.. the proverbial the sun don't shine.. no no.. the other one.) But trust me.. once you get the hang of it probably by the second or third cycle, it will be OK. You see those girls wearing white trousers in pad commercials jumping about with balloons in their hands, riding bicycles and looking like a million dollars? Well.. we all know commercials are there to sell things and you don't feel like doing all that shit when you've tried brand X's pad. Or brand Y's nanotechnology (snigger) surface guaranteed to keep you 'dry' feels squishy.

But you know what? If you've got the mooncup, you can do all that and its all true. You'll feel great because the mooncup is leakproof, stays in place and you don't have to leave the house with a wad of pads and tampons in your bag during those days because you can replace them every 8-12 hours (its made from medical grade silicon, so no TSS scare there, and no.. your cup won't runneth over). And best of all.. once its in place, you don't feel a thing. I mean it. Not a single sensation. 

So girls, do yourselves a favour and check out the mooncup, keeper, divacup or femmecup. I really can't think of anything bad to say about them and don't let huge advertising budgets of sanitory pad companies mislead you into settling for less! 

You can buy all these products online or better yet, email Applecow. She's selling these out of her personal conviction that these will make a difference so please support her in the cause! 

Perhaps its today or the difference five minutes make but traffic on the road this morning was absolutely horrendous.

I am rather upset with myself for one instance of carelessness that could have resulted in me squashed in a 3 car pile-up. Luckily nothing happened and I didn't even get honked at (For the curious, it involves trying to filter left across one lane when the left lane is packed with cars exiting an expressway ramp with no gap between vehicles in sight. I had to stop at the painted triangular island between two lanes to wait for my time and I'm not even sure if that is safe either - I do get nervous at that particular stretch but traffic was always ok previously). 

One cyclist I met on the way urged me to 'do my own thing, cars will give way to me' when he saw me tail a bus instead of overtaking it by the right. Thanks but I'm too chicken shit for that, especially with traffic like how it is this morning. I'll be setting off earlier from now on. We'll see the difference ten minutes make.