This week, lab was hell.
For whatever reason(s), nothing seemed to work. My experiments gave weird results and I couldn't even do the most mundane of things like a gel extraction. I think there is some type of karmic law that states that the first two weeks in a new lab, everything goes beautifully and you develop a sense that you can make real progress in your project. Then...WHAM. Equipment fails, experiments go wrong, calculations never produce the same answer twice, and you feel completely incompetent.
Fortunately, I know from my research at Ithaca and from my summer rotation that this is a common occurrence in research. Still, I wish it wasn't happening so early in my rotation! I feel like the only thing I'm proving at this point is that I have poor lab technique...Which is, of course, an exaggeration. No one else in the lab, my PI included, is too concerned about it...they know I will figure it out and they don't think my technique is bad, I'm just having "one of those weeks."
And mercifully, today I have begun dissecting what has been going wrong and starting to move out of my rut, with a lot of help from Jenny, the lab technician that is taking me under her wing. Still, it's been an incredibly stressful week. Thank God for the weekend.
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