I changed the bench paper on my lab bench yesterday. Somehow, I hope that this has some bearing on the experiment I'm doing today.
It's silly, I know, but then I feel like some of the most superstitious people I know are scientists. We hate straying from protocols, even if it probably won't make much of a difference (2 washes for 10 minutes each, or 3 washes for 5 minutes each? etc.). Once we've got a protocol worked out, we're very hesitant to change it. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most experiments are multi-day investments, so to change one step and then have the whole thing not work is akin to losing an entire week sometimes.
And yes, there's a certain amount of obsessive-compulsion built into the job. Or the job attracts people that are naturally a little OCD. Either way, it amounts to the same thing.
So every time that things are consistently failing, I'm driven to clean up my bench area, which usually looks something like this. Doesn't hurt to keep my fingers crossed, either.
Update: Well, I guess you could say the experiment worked, in that I know where my protein is - it's just not exactly where I would like it to be for the next round of purification. Blerg.
It's silly, I know, but then I feel like some of the most superstitious people I know are scientists. We hate straying from protocols, even if it probably won't make much of a difference (2 washes for 10 minutes each, or 3 washes for 5 minutes each? etc.). Once we've got a protocol worked out, we're very hesitant to change it. A lot of it has to do with the fact that most experiments are multi-day investments, so to change one step and then have the whole thing not work is akin to losing an entire week sometimes.
And yes, there's a certain amount of obsessive-compulsion built into the job. Or the job attracts people that are naturally a little OCD. Either way, it amounts to the same thing.
So every time that things are consistently failing, I'm driven to clean up my bench area, which usually looks something like this. Doesn't hurt to keep my fingers crossed, either.
Update: Well, I guess you could say the experiment worked, in that I know where my protein is - it's just not exactly where I would like it to be for the next round of purification. Blerg.
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