Or something like this:
leaves you feeling happy and satisfied with the day's work. Over the last couple of days, I've done a number of midipreps to purify plasmid DNA from transformed bacterial cultures; some successful, some not quite so - but that's another story (in case the title didn't give it away, this post is about happy things only). So, after a couple of steps involving centrifugation, cell lysis, filtration, washing, and DNA precipitation, you elute off your plasmids into an Eppendorf tube not unlike the ones in the first picture (which was shamelessly stolen via the wondrous technology that is the internet).
The problem with plasmids, and many other things in molecular biology for that matter, is that you can't distinguish a tube containing a gene conferring the ability to move at light speed and the strength to rub superman's face in the dirt, from another filled with good old sugar solution. This is where the second picture comes in - agarose gels which let you know that your clear, colourless solution actually contains what you were expecting (in my case, pSUPER.GFP plasmids). Or confirm your worst fears that your sample only has the power to induce diabetes if you drink enough of it.
My conclusion? None, really, except maybe to get used to the fact that tubes, bands on gels, and other seemingly inconsequential items will become your source of satisfaction should you go into biological research.
1 comment:
Kevin, One of my early science memories is one day during my PhD I was in the lab early in the morning while the cleaners were still in (a not very common occurance!)
I noticed one of them watching me for a while, looking puzzled. Then she said to me: "I don't understand why you are transferring the water from those tubes and mixing it with water in those other tubes." I was doing some restriction digests.
It was an important reminder that science can look very odd to outsiders. Probably we should try and explain more - hopefully your blog will help!
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