SEEEEETHIINNNNGGG!
I just got done talking with (in reverse order) my boss, an organic chem faculty and my other boss, the head of the stoopid lab.
About an hour ago, The Other Boss comes to find me to tell me that he has just finished talking with his colleague, the Organic Chem Faculty in the chemistry department of this fine, esteemed institution. TOB explains that OCF has (possibly) solved a vexing problem pertinent to my research and that I should go talk to him myself.
>>> a little background... I am figuring out all I can about my enzymes, but that requires a substrate (fuel) for the enzymes to work on. Since my enzymes also use oxygen, I need to keep the fuel and the oxygen separate until I am ready to make my measurements. Otherwise, since my fuel is unstable, if there is oxygen around, it will just fall apart (react). It took me a year to figure out how to do this in a REPRODUCIBLE, MEASURABLE, CONTROLLED and QUANTITATIVE way. <<
I wander over to the chemistry building and chat with OCF. He and I are familiar with each other, but not friendly (he is a bit of an old-school chemist). He explains the basics of the synthesis and then says, “Well, we don’t know what to do next. You’re the biochemist. Tell us what to do next.” Really not a problem, I assure him. I just need to know what state my enzymes’ substrate is in. By this point, I have already thought of three experiments. And thought of some of the implications if this really did work. And by all appearances, it did.
We go to find his grad student, but can’t. I leave my email addy and lab phone and OCF promises to have the grad student call. I wander back towards the biochemistry building, dumbfounded at the implications of all that OCF has just told me. It’s a short journey between the buildings, about 2 minutes. By the time I get to my boss’s office, I am more pissed off than I have been in a long time.
I give my boss the headline news edition of all that I learned and she gets it right away. She is quiet for a bit and then we start discussing numbers.
Her, “so they knew about this structure when… ’83? No, not that early. 1987? Yeah. It took somebody 20 years!!?! before asking ‘OCF’ about this? Amazing”
Me, “yeah, I am a little bitter right now. Just thinking of all the time and effort and wasted experiments that were spent trying to optimize this system, and this just makes all that moot. Like, a year’s worth of work.”
Her, "yeah."
Really, it is more than a year's work. I could have been graduated several times over (read: years ago. Seriously) and not be in the throes of this current slump, slogging my way through the sludge that is grad school.
Muthafucka. This will only be aided by tequila. I am pissed. How in the hell can I concentrate on the manuscript revisions when all I am thinking about is wasted time? I thought writing all this out would help, but I am still seething.
ciao
About an hour ago, The Other Boss comes to find me to tell me that he has just finished talking with his colleague, the Organic Chem Faculty in the chemistry department of this fine, esteemed institution. TOB explains that OCF has (possibly) solved a vexing problem pertinent to my research and that I should go talk to him myself.
>>> a little background... I am figuring out all I can about my enzymes, but that requires a substrate (fuel) for the enzymes to work on. Since my enzymes also use oxygen, I need to keep the fuel and the oxygen separate until I am ready to make my measurements. Otherwise, since my fuel is unstable, if there is oxygen around, it will just fall apart (react). It took me a year to figure out how to do this in a REPRODUCIBLE, MEASURABLE, CONTROLLED and QUANTITATIVE way. <<
I wander over to the chemistry building and chat with OCF. He and I are familiar with each other, but not friendly (he is a bit of an old-school chemist). He explains the basics of the synthesis and then says, “Well, we don’t know what to do next. You’re the biochemist. Tell us what to do next.” Really not a problem, I assure him. I just need to know what state my enzymes’ substrate is in. By this point, I have already thought of three experiments. And thought of some of the implications if this really did work. And by all appearances, it did.
We go to find his grad student, but can’t. I leave my email addy and lab phone and OCF promises to have the grad student call. I wander back towards the biochemistry building, dumbfounded at the implications of all that OCF has just told me. It’s a short journey between the buildings, about 2 minutes. By the time I get to my boss’s office, I am more pissed off than I have been in a long time.
I give my boss the headline news edition of all that I learned and she gets it right away. She is quiet for a bit and then we start discussing numbers.
Her, “so they knew about this structure when… ’83? No, not that early. 1987? Yeah. It took somebody 20 years!!?! before asking ‘OCF’ about this? Amazing”
Me, “yeah, I am a little bitter right now. Just thinking of all the time and effort and wasted experiments that were spent trying to optimize this system, and this just makes all that moot. Like, a year’s worth of work.”
Her, "yeah."
Really, it is more than a year's work. I could have been graduated several times over (read: years ago. Seriously) and not be in the throes of this current slump, slogging my way through the sludge that is grad school.
Muthafucka. This will only be aided by tequila. I am pissed. How in the hell can I concentrate on the manuscript revisions when all I am thinking about is wasted time? I thought writing all this out would help, but I am still seething.
ciao
posted by beaner at 6:53 PM
1 Comments:
i am so terribly sorry. if i were going to be in town this weekend i would ply you with yarn and booze and chocolate. lots of chocolate. perhaps a rain check for next tuesday?
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