Getting creative

Ecogeoman and I have noticed that if your field is small, you sometimes have to get creative to solve practical problems in the lab. Without tons of people out there doing the same kinds of work, there might not be enough demand to warrant design and marketing of specialized equipment for your purpose.  So the thing you need might not exist, or if it does you might not know about it.

Fortunately, we can usually come up with something that will do the job.  We're constantly repurposing stuff to find solutions to little problems.  Cutting up PCR tubes, getting creative with toothpaste, spending hours in craft or hardware stores describing what we want without getting into all the bizarre details of the experiment.  My new lab is getting a taste of this now, and I think they find it pretty frustrating.

I suspect you don't run into these problems so much if you do NIH-funded stuff (not because of the funding, but because there are so many people doing similar types of work).  Whole companies exist to supply the needs of bioscience researchers -- and they have competition!  I'm getting a taste of this in my new lab now, and I think find it pretty delightful.  Sure, there are companies selling stuff specifically for workers in my old field, too, but there just aren't as many and their offerings are more limited.

I did have an experience recently where I tried to MacGyver a lab set-up, and then found a supplier for everything I needed, deigned exactly for my purpose.  It was glorious! 

Do my readers who work on cancer and stuff face similar challenges?  Or is my assessment way off-base? 

Tired with a side of disappointed

Today I found out that a paper I submitted a few weeks ago has been rejected.  It was the weakest of my thesis chapters, but we aimed low journal-wise so I'm surprised the reviews were as bad as they were and the rejection was as solid as it was.  So far I have only skimmed the review comments and they struck me as comprehensively negative but polite.  Research Advisor thinks they were mostly constructive--some complaints were refutable, some were founded and can help us revise, and some were flaws were knew were there--and that we can reframe the story for another journal.  I'm less disappointed about the rejection itself than I am bummed that it's going to take that much longer to shore up my weak publishing record.

In other news, today I learned a lab technique that is very new to me.  The technician who trained me is just as fantastic as Awesome Technician so it was a pleasant enough experience, and I am thrilled to be learning new skills.  Furthermore, this is the first lab work I've done as a postdoc and it felt great to be away from my desk for a spell.  However, I was awkward and uncertain about the choreography of the protocol and it is always exhausting to learn brand new stuff.  On top of that, by the end of the day I was so frustrated with the scale of everything.  I had to stand on a step stool to do several different tasks, and some critical tools didn't fit in my hands very well which contributed to my lack of coordination.  So irritating. 

To avoid going home and wallowing, I went shopping after work.  On the bright side, I found bargains. I got some low-heeled, moderately dressy shoes that I've been looking for for a while ($13), socks to wear with them ($5 for 6 pairs), jeans ($33 for two pairs), and a big splurge, perfume ($25).  I'm disappointed with the jeans though and bought them because they were on clearance and I was pissed off; I had tried on some cool designer ones at another store and there were comically long, reinforcing my disdain of being a short person in a tall-person world.  Phooey. 

Not so fast

On Monday, I emailed a draft of another diss chapter to Awesome Technician (AT) and my advisors. AT sent me comments on Tuesday, but I didn't look at them right away. Today when I came in, there was a book on my chair with an unsigned note marking a page saying something like "this might be a good reference for [statement X]" (I had some sentences in the discussion that still needed references). I thought the handwriting was Research Advisor's, and I got super excited that she had read my draft already. There was a problem with my email server this morning, so I couldn't sign in right away to see if she had emailed full comments, but the fact that she had left this book indicated that she had read the draft. I wanted to thank her straight away, but she was in a meeting.

I stopped my AT's office a little later to talk about some lab things, and I mentioned how happy I was that Research Advisor had already read my draft and that I couldn't wait to thank her. AT made this odd face and said, "well, I left a book on your chair. Were there two books?" uuuooooooohh. It wasn't my advisor after all. But AT did make a bunch of really helpful comments, so that's good.

I'm glad that Advisor was in that meeting, because I would have felt like a total jackass if I had barged into her office with a big grin, thanking her for her prompt feedback, and put her in the position of saying that she hadn't done it. That would have been awkward.

Proposition

Remember how I whined about a certain instrument a few months ago? My main complaint was that I use it so infrequently that I don't remember what to do, and each time I go to use the thing the protocol has changed slightly anyway. Well, I need to use it again for another project. Just three more encounters with this thing and I will be done. I'm so not interested in learning how to run this instrument for just these next three times, but I need the data. The culture of the lab dictates that I should run my own damn samples, but since I don't know how, it typically goes like this: I stand there while someone else does everything but explains each step as they go along and I pretend like I'm absorbing it all. I learn a little bit, but not enough to do it on my own the next time, so I always need help. This doesn't seem very efficient to me, as I see no point in using two people's time to do a one-person job.

So, I'm going to propose a trade. There is someone else who is really proficient with the instrument. It's not her job to run other people's samples, but because of some recent shifts in lab personnel, it would probably fall to her to help me. So I'm going to ask her to just run my samples for me and in return I will do something for her. I'll ask her to keep track of how long it takes with my samples, and then I will do something for her for an equal amount of time. Anything she wants, as long as I have the skills to do it. I would much rather spend a few hours doing something for someone else than waste my time watching someone do what should be my job. I think it will appeal to her too, since she'd probably spend almost as much time on my samples if I "do them myself" as if she does them for me, and she'll get a few hours of skilled bonus help. Win-win, right?

I'll let you know how it goes.

ETA: She agreed. I have to help with two partial days of field work. It's possible that I am overcompensating, but I have a feeling she's going to be doing a lot more than her share of lab service for a while, so I don't mind helping her out.

100%

I'm finished! The Crummy Tedious Boring Dirty Samples are done! Go ahead, check the counter.

I left the lab yesterday with just four samples remaining, so I was pretty confident I would finish them today. I didn't have to carpool, so I stopped on my to work this morning and bought two large bags of mini Twix candy bars. I got some semi-unexpected help with the samples today, making it possible for me to finish by 5:00 pm! I went around offering everyone a Twix since most of them had helped me with the samples over the past three years or at the very least, they had listened to me complain about them. I left the rest of the candy in our shared food spot with a note saying "[Name] finished her [samples]!! Everyone gets a Twix!"

Blogging about this work really helped motivate me to finish it these last few months. It's a pity I don't have something else now that would lend well to a new blog progress counter. I do plan to do InaDWriMo, however, if Dr. Brazen Hussy organizes it again.

Saturday in the lab

I went to work today and got a ton of stuff done. Before gas got so expensive, when I went to the lab on weekends, I used to vacillate between thinking "it's Saturday, I can take lots of breaks" and "I'm spending my Saturday here, I better have something to show for it when I leave". Now when I drive the 35 miles each way to go the lab on weekends, I think, "I better get a shit ton of work done since I'm spending so much money to get here."

Almost no one else in my lab works on weekends. It's nice to be alone there on occasion. I can listen to whatever music I want without offending anyone. Plus I can sing along! And dance a little! I can use all the space and equipment I want without getting in anyone else's way. I can fart. And bonus: I can get away with not wearing my safety glasses when I'm doing stuff that's really, really low risk (but dont' tell anyone).

The only bad thing today was that I got this really weird pain in my foot, like a cramp or pulled muscle or something. It feels like there's a nail being driven into the arch just next to the heel. By the end of the day I couldn't put weight on my heel -- I had to walk on my tip-toes on that foot. I put one of those rice filled heat packs on it when I got home but it still hurts. I'm hoping that a good night's sleep will take care of it.

Making lucky

You know that dictum that luck is the intersection of preparation and opportunity? Well, today I experienced a small example of that.

We have all these interns this summer. In the past, our interns have frequently had chunks of time with nothing to do, like if they are waiting for samples to dry/get wet/incubate/die. Since their projects have to be very small and discreet so they can finish in 10-12 weeks, they don't have side work on hand to fill up these gaps. I have learned to capitalize on these windows by having easy but boring work available for them at a moment's notice, stuff that that someone can do with very little additional training and that sucks to do for days on end but isn't so bad for a few hours. In fact, I save up this kind of work for just these occasions. I figure I can always do it myself eventually, but I don't want to miss the opportunity for help because I didn't have something easy for a helper to do.

Today, not one but two interns had 2-3 hours with nothing to do, so Awesome Technician put them to work on my stuff. I was thrilled. We both knew there was a more important and time sensitive task that they should probably have been assigned to, but everyone else was out of the lab today and none of them had given AT instructions for it, so my stuff was all she could think of. Lucky.

Summer students swarm serene science space, create chaos

There are six extra people in our lab this summer, plus a temp who is finishing up a 5-month gig. There will also be a visiting post doc for a few weeks in July (staying at my place) and a post doc who has a joint appointment with another lab who will be with us more than usual. For reference, there are only eight of us there full-time year-round.

I enjoy having interns and visiting faculty around. The work that has become hum-drum to us is fresh to new people; their enthusiasm can enliven the mostly repetitive and often boring work we do. Also, it is exciting to see so much get done so quickly.

It takes good organization and communication to train and manage all those people, many of whom do not have much lab experience. Even the ones who have spent some time in labs don’t know how our lab operates (obviously), so they need a lot of help. If we don’t keep up with their needs, things can get royally f’d up. Regular readers may recall that our lab has occasional organizational shortcomings; I always get tense at the start of the summer before we know what the interns are like. Good ones make the summers rock out, but so-so ones can wreak havoc without even knowing it (if we were more organized or better mentors, we could probably circumvent problems).

Today was good though. I knew others would be working in the same area as me, so I got started in the lab straight away to could claim some space and supplies. One by one, people joined me and managed to squeeze in so everybody could work. An interesting if tedious highlight was sitting quietly while three different interns got trained by three different people at different points in the day to do almost the same thing. But the best part was with the temp: housekeeping is a perennial problem for us so yesterday I had asked her to clean up a big mess she had neglected for days and days and today she did it! I was the first to leave this afternoon, so we’ll see how the space looks tomorrow morning.

I hope today signals the start of a fun and productive summer.

I'm a trained monkey

I'm off to the lab this afternoon to do some seriously mindless work. If I'm lucky I'll tick off 6 more samples from the counter at the sidebar. Even though this task is crummy, tedious, boring, and dirty, I enjoy it as long as I don't have to do it every day for weeks on end. Candid Engineer has a post about why big brain thinky types like to do repetitive lab work (actually, there are a bunch of great posts at Candid Engineer in Academia) that I think is pretty much spot-on. It feels good to see the work get done. Also, I like to get my hands dirty with the project so I develop a more intimate knowledge of it.


So you say, "EGF, you don't work on weekends! That violates your 40 hours rule." That's true, but I do want to graduate and the only way to do it to get things done. However, unless I have a huge and looming deadline, when I work on weekends I reserve the right to choose whatever I feel like doing rather than worrying about what has highest priority. I figure it's bonus work so whatever I get done is great. I don't want to be resentful of being there; I want to be pleased with myself for getting something extra accomplished.

Every thing I do today is one thing I don't have to do tomorrow.

March NYR review

I’m overdue for a New Year’s Resolution update post. I’m sure these are boring, but they really do provide some accountability for me, so here goes.

• I’m doing fine on the money and cooking resolutions.
• Lab work is slowly but steadily progressing. I met a small milestone for Chapter 2 work this week. Chapter 3 work is not going as fast, but not entirely stalled.
• The paper is not going well. Well, it’s not going badly but this is April already and it’s still not done. I have no one to blame but myself. No excuses. I just haven’t done it. Progress has been creeping along, but I need to get my A into G and do it. Actually, that’s not really fair. I did do a fair bit of work on it in March. However, I can feel myself fake working during my writing time and that’s bad. Also, I put everything else first and that’s also bad.
• I still have the same old problem of being really effective in the lab and not so much at my desk. One of the resolutions I have let slide was to make tomorrow’s to-do list at the end of each day. I think I should try that again. Also, I think the goals should be more specific. Currently, I’ll say I’m going to “write” for 2 hours or whatever, but I think I need to say “I’ll work on paragraph X” or “I’ll find the appropriate references for these 3 arguments”. There’s currently some good advice about goal making and list writing at the Aphasic Grads Writing Group.

Sorry I complain about the same crap over and over, but it’s what I struggle with.

Treat

In light of yesterday's news, the wonderful email I got today from Research Advisor telling me how she nominated me for the award*, and how I rocked out at work today**, I decided I should get a little treat. In fact, I got myself the treat of all treats: I had ice cream for dinner. Actually, it was a chocolate malt from 31 Flavors. YUM.

*I feel I should seriously savor this because it's not too often that you get praise in this business. I'm sharing it with you not to brag, but because I think it's unfair when people want you to listen to all the bad things that happen but then don't share the good things. And this is "The Happy Scientist", after all :)
** I got back on track with the paper rewrite. I really focused on it this morning and made some headway reorganizing the discussion. I Then spent the afternoon in the lab and it was going so well that I decided to stay to do more samples. I feel really good about my progress today, which is much more than I can say for any other day this week.

Is your inner monologue cool?

I am neurotic about my efficiency in the lab. I don’t like for anything to take longer than it needs to take, so I figure out ways to shave time off of every procedure. I pride myself in being fast at particular tasks and have been known to toot my own horn about it.

One of the technicians is learning a procedure that Awesome Technician and I mostly do. I mentioned a short cut for one step and they marveled at my anal retentiveness -- “you have a protocol for that?”. Yes, I do. Just as I have a preferred sequence for every series of steps, a seamless choreography that lets me get just one more sample done.

AT and I considered why I am like this. I suggested it’s because I have a boring inner monologue, so I have to think about how to get done faster, while she can luxuriate in her interesting and creative thoughts. But it probably has more to do with my overwhelming desire to finish my damn thesis.

Medium and Good

The Medium:

1. We discussed the first draft of my manuscript at lab meeting (led by Academic Advisor, not Research Advisor). It was a good experience; I got lots of constructive comments. I had asked them to focus on big picture issues, like organization, consistency, data interpretation, main themes, etc., rather than details since the paper is at an early stage (I don’t want to polish sentences that might just get deleted). Some people marked up stupid style and formatting stuff anyway, but at least they read it. We haven’t discussed many working drafts in our lab meetings, so AA used my manuscript as a tool to teach everyone some broad writing lessons. Some examples:

• Title, abstract, first pragraph of intro, first paragraph of results, first and last paragraphs of discussion, and conclusion should all match and contain the same point(s).
• Avoid starting major sections with “negative” statements. For instance, “this bad disease disfigures hundreds of people every year” is not positive. AA claims that the papers that come off as most exciting and interesting phrase things in a positive way.
• This one is more obvious, but apparently I had trouble with it: determine your audience and write with the appropriate degree of detail. I guess I mixed general ideas that would appeal to a broad audience with finer points that would bore everyone but specialists in my subdiscipline.

So the lab meeting was mostly good, but today I felt a little overwhelmed when I started to attack the problems. I will basically have to rewrite the paper, which is fine because it will get so much better, but I need to develop a strategy. AA said he would email me his specific comments – they might help me figure out where to start. I currently feel frustrated.

2. I have been making slow progress on the crummy, tedious, boring, dirty project (see progress meter at sidebar). Today I worked on the Worst Samples Ever. My plan was to chip away on this project while working on manuscript revisions. It’s bench work that I usually sort of enjoy and that a trained monkey could do, so I figured it would be a good way to spread out the difficult rewriting while still moving forward on something. But today’s samples were so crappy that it only added to my overall frustration. I really want to finish with these fuckers.

The Good:

1. My fellowship got renewed for one more year. Yay! This is a big relief.
2. My BFF invited me to go on vacation with her and her parents this summer, at the same time that Ecogeoman is going to Far Off Land. I’d only have to pay for myself to get there and maybe chip in for food. EGM and I had basically decided that I should not go to Far Off Land with him (too expensive) so I’m excited to go to Florida instead. :)
3. I was in a really sour mood when I got home today, so EGM and I got beer and dinner at our favorite neighborhood bar. Then we got ice cream -- yum. I feel much better now.

Another kind of balance

We talk a whole lot about work-life balance, but lately I've been thinking about how challenging project balance is to learn. Knowing when to devote time to different projects is tricky. Currently, I'm working on the manuscript for project 1, lab work for project 2 when bench space is available, totally different lab work for project 3, and helping Awesome Technician with lab work for one of Research Advisor's projects when both of us have time. Ecogeoman is juggling two manuscripts, TAing, and writing one small grant proposal after another. This is nothing compared to all the balls our advisors keep in the air all the time. It's like playing Tetris with projects across time.

I like having several things going on at once. Any of it gets tiresome after a while, so it's nice to mix up computer work with different kinds of bench work. If space or equipment is unavailable I can always do something else, so my efficiency is not at the mercy of other people. Also, I like making progress on several things concurrently. But sometimes, I just want to buckle down and get something done. It takes so long to finish things.

RBof Good Day

• My carpool buddy has been on vacation for 2.5 weeks, which means my rigid commuting schedule has been more relaxed. This is the last day of it, so EGM and I went out to breakfast with friends. I never do things like go out to breakfast on a weekday. Unexpected bonus: our friends picked up the check.
• I still managed to work a full day, so I don't feel guilty about going to said breakfast.
• I gave the first draft of my manuscript to my lab group yesterday, which felt good. We're going to discuss it at lab meeting next week. The How to Write a Lot book told me that only a fool celebrates achieving a writing goal by skipping her scheduled writing time, so I spent 1.5 hours doing writing stuff for other projects.
• I then spent the rest of the day in the lab, which I love. One of my projects involves doing a crummy, tedious, boring, dirty task on a LOT of samples. It's never ending. I spent big chunks of the past two summers working on this with intern helpers, but there's still about 1/3 of the samples left to do. Today was the first time I've worked on it since August and it went pretty quickly. I figure if I bust my ass on it, I could have it done in 6 weeks. It'll probably take 12. Anyone want to place bets?
• EGM and I still managed to make a dinner that didn't involve pizza.