Musings of a lab rat

I am trying to be grateful for what I've got...

Over 24 weeks of lab work experience outside of University is a great thing to have on your CV, but frankly. I'd like to have my last three Augusts back. See, life as an undergraduate (and even pre-university) lab rat is very rewarding, good experience and all that rot, yet I can't help but feel somewhat fed up with the whole business.

Perhaps a career in science is not for me, or, more likely, weeks of sitting about, staying out of the way and reading the BBC news website is not an accurate experience of the world of a research lab. My summers of 2010 and 2011 are a hazy blur of protein preps, DNA gels and crystal try after crystal tray. At no point could I honestly say I fully understood what I was doing and why. I did enjoy it though, the procedures and visible results.]

An eppendorf centrifuge is one of the many machines that will try and kill you. Just make sure that you close the lid ©Wikimedia Commons; Image Credit: Rockpocket

Admittedly this summer has been an improvement. Currently I am in week six (of eight) and, whilst all my projects are crashing down around my ears, I have been able to stretch my scientific wings a tad more, as it were.I have my own projects, am left to my own devices and can make my own decisions as how best to proceed. The subsequent lack of success so far is possibly a result of this.

In all honesty, this new-found laboratory freedom is more likely a consequence of the assumption that I, having now completed the second year of a Biochemistry degree, must know what I am doing, rather than any display of competence on my part, however it is best not to think too hard about such things, rather stick to doing what I do best (muddle on regardless of all else around me).

Yes, I still follow the post-grads around with my notebook out begging the answers to questions such as “Why is my cloning not working?” “What have I grown on this plate?” and most importantly “Why is that machine beeping at me in such an angry way?”*, but now some problems I can finally tackle for myself. Key among these being what to next to keep my slowly sinking projects above the water line slightly longer, and when it is acceptable to suggest a tea break to your colleagues (any time but lunchtime, it seems). So for the next couple of weeks, I shall proceed as best I can, googling my way through experimental protocols and depending alarmingly on Wikipedia.

*answers, in no particular order, are : “Because you've screwed up”, “Because you've screwed up” and “I don't know, but kill it now”.

Published in The Yorker September 19th 2012