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April 27, 2005
Lab update
How's lab going?
It's fun, really fun :) there's just something about working with your hands, real liquids and proteins at your fingertips. That's not to say that it isn't frustrating... In fact, it's a whole lot more frustrating than computer work because just about everything you deal with in the lab setting is a colorless liquid. If you come across a tube with an unknown liquid inside, you have no easy way of knowing if it has protein, DNA, radioactivity, contaminants, cells... You name it, they're all quite colorless. In fact, it's quite impressive that one of the proteins we're working with is called GFP - green fluorescent protein - which really is green and fluorescent! Tubes of that stuff are pretty neat... they have a real bright green color. Anyway, on the computer you never are in doubt too long as to what you are working with - debuggers are excellent microscopes and can tell you anything and everything you would want to know.
Still, it's fun. I am getting more and more independent which is really nice... sometimes I need a bit of help but the guy I'm working with is very helpful. I feel like I'm learning this stuff very fast. Hopefully some of it will stick when it comes time for me to do my own research!
This week, next week, and the week after is all my crunch time. I've got two projects to finish, plus a problem set and a final exam. Once that is done, though, I'm all finished! Then the life of a graduate student really kicks in (meaning lab, lab, lab...)
Sent from: Karl Gutwin
Posted by kgutwin at April 27, 2005 07:55 PM
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Comments
sounds pretty neat! glad to hear you are enjoying what you are doing! I met a guy yesterday that graduated from Cornell with a PhD degree in BioChem who works for UVM in the Botany Dept. (Doing research and teaching) He agreed that MIT was the best in the field.
Posted by: mom at April 29, 2005 08:16 PM