the thing with PCRs... I don't fancy at the moment

If you forget to change the flourophore [spell check wants it to be froufrou now wouldn't that be more fun?] to the one you will use in the RT-PCR protocol that the machine uses as a default setting, it doesn't matter what you did because the whole thing is read wrong and no, it can not be changed afterwards.

Duh.

That's when you redo things.... and then redo things... (because you forgot something else, or missed something small but since it is real time quantitative PCR it is sensitive... and yeah... sloppy you...) Just button up and redo it. Try not to shake when you pipette the small (minuscule) volumes and make 1000+ dilution series (OK, I might be over exaggerating just a bit).

I ended up designing new primers for sequencing... since it came back "wacko-we-don't-want-to-bind" last time again. Now, I have a new batch of purified fragments (just the idea that I am sequencing PCR fragments makes my tummy cringe but that's what they want....and truly, it makes it less impossible but still...) and should probably send them in with the "semi-old" primers anyway since it doesn't hurt to try - and hope is the last thing that dies, right?!

On the flip side I guess, I've been sort of the boss all this week since my boss is gone on vacation. It's interesting being the newest hire but being sort of in charge. Even if it doesn't increase my pay, or is visible in my job description... really, mostly it's about taking responsibility for things (and do more stuff for others), but it has felt a bit fun.

Now, time to leave soon. Just need to finish that sequence order...

How to drive (some) co-workers insane

Easy stuff…. Some of us are more sensitive than others…and this mostly revolves around open cube land… mostly…

When you step away from your desk to go to your lab or lunch or wherever you might go… please;
* Leave your pager (yes, the one you should wear on you since that is how people can get in touch with you) on your desk and let it have LOUD as signal

* Leave your cell phone with a LOUD ring signal and put it on the desk (not in a purse/desk/bag, although with certain loudnesses this might work too.)

* Never disable the “message repeat signal” so in case someone phones you and leaves a message, the phone can give a [by you preset] signal to remind you [if you were there this is] that “you have a message waiting”. Make sure that you put it on "remind me until I listen to the message, repeat every x mins"

If you are at your desk;
* Never lower your voice when you need to talk on the phone, especially not if you need to use a speaker phone (I mean, after all, it’s much more fun when you can listen to both sides of a conversation, right?) or if you are calling personal/private phone calls from work with some type of [private] comments (about friend/family/co-workers).

* Never reply to an email or a phone request when you were the one initiating the whole “we need to get this done yesterday”. Oh no, not you. Someone else can spend their whole day waiting for you to return something… and then, to further make it funny, please change your mind on what is priority number one and look surprised when this isn’t done. Because you didn’t do anything wrong… you had to run some personal stuff in the middle of the day…

* And as a kicker,(an old classic) if you take the last (second to, third to, anything less than 10 in an everyday item) vial/bottle/thing don’t bother letting anyone know that you did this since then [someone] could order more and actually not be out and having to run around like crazy looking for something vital to do experiments…. But if that meant that we could all go home and have the day off, sure…

Oh and one last thing…. If you can change an important file and save it in a magic place without telling people where you did this – then they might actually remake the file from scratch which will be funny once you tell them that “oh, but that information is already assembled in a file I saved over there in the magic cabinet without telling anyone”…

If you manage to do three out of these things, I know one person who would grow mildly irritated. If you did all of them in one day – yes, I know someone who’d go mental and be planning for an early leave since clearly she’d do more useful stuff at home than in the mad house with ring tones, bleeepings and loud noices.

(and no, head phones are not an option since where [some people] work over head calls are used to contact people when needed… since we don’t know where they are… light sedatives might be an option… maybe… ;) )

friday night rant about science and feminism

So, tonight I watched both "He's not just into you" and "Titanic" and read Scienceblogs. After that session I felt a bit over-thinking. Let's start with the simple.

The first movie is linked as a "girl movie". It started out OK, and let me put this right now - I like the genre, especially on a girly night - , and them it sort of all ends up with all "women want to get married whereas men don't need that confirmation" [yeah, don't think that all the time but certainly hope it's not true]. Apart from that, and all generalisation about men and women plus the fact that the girl who doesn't get it is a blond (Scarlet Johansen), it's a decent movie that made me think about the whole thing of looooove and that "when/if you really love her/him you'd d anything to keep them happy". [again, a simplified version about life ihmo.]

And then Titanic on top of that. This is where I started to think about science since Jack dies in the middle of the North Atlantic and freezes to death. I wondered if Rose actually would survive that much longer on top of that barge (spelling?) compared to Jack. (I also realize why Titanic was such a memorable moment for me since the worst ferry accident in Sweden happened a few years earlier from the movie, and the idea of being in +2C/34F water is quite scary if you have ever taken a bath in 32F/0C water.... since you know the freezing feeling of the brain, the movement of the body etc.)

And then it was the realization that before I moved to the USA, I had never actually seen a female professor give a lecture in a short, nice looking, (sort of sexy) dress. After I moved, there was all confusion in my head. Why? Because all my profs and the others told me was "look good in a [dress pants] suit and don't wear a skirt because this will put emphasis on you being a woman" and then I had all these women presenting in short skirts and tops. I didn't think too much about it until after the time I ended up presenting my conference paper in a nice top (not low cut) and a skirt and the comments I got afterwards was sort of in the like of this "wow, you look like a real women" and "wow, good looking legs" and things like that... but we did never talk about my research.... all my other talks and presentations were me dressed in a pants suit, or a pants and a nice top.

What I wonder is, is this just me? (Since I would love it to be only me and this particular moment.) Or is it the strange thing about being "female"/"womanly" and dress like that and then some scientists (men in this aspect as I am thinking about) are just going for gold?

Just lots of thoughts ... obviously..... a Friday night like this... and won't even go into the Angel episode I'm watching right now.... ;)

"it's like high school... but not really"

I recently got an email from a former colleague where she was ranting about her new PhD student, who has this concept that science is all about brains and "if you are smart enough, you can get the professorship and publish in C/N/S when you do grad work". She wrote me partly because she wanted to see how I am doing in my new position, partly because she had some news of her own and (as she stated) "you were always the one not to bs. Have any suggestions on an analogy I can use to explain the slightly bigger thing here? I miss your wit with a smile after the cynical statements".

ehh... although I guess there is something to it? Even if it just felt a bit like the "ask the lonely sometimes talkative, cynic over there in corner who makes some people feel a bit awkward".

The last few weeks have been educational, in some regards. Basically, I love the fact that most of us were brought up with the idea that "as long as you do a good job, you'll be rewarded for it". Well, my only beef with it? (not the only, but the main one.)

That the world doesn't work like that. (it's a great fairy tale though.)

Sure, we'd like that people who work hard and do a great job get rewarded. I mean, how would you get people to do that otherwise? (There are those strange people who take pride in doing an awesome job without payback but alas, we are mostly slightly strange and the odd ones out who other people tend to laugh at and make do their work just because...)

So, the plan is simple; tell all children that being a good moral person who works hard and strive to make the world a better place will be the thing that gets rewarded.

Well, reality check?! Not all that likely. More likely, the person who suck up is going to get stuff before you, no matter how good you are. Or, in science, the person with the best ideas might not go anywhere since it has to do with how you present the ideas, who you ally with, who gives you money and a whole lot of things that has little to do with your actual research/lab work.

And that, if you don't work in Academia, there is a great chance that the middle manager will be someone that didn't do their job all that well but since people couldn't fire them - since they did didn't do anything that wrong, they know the bounderies - they "replaced them" by moving them semi-up and to the left where they now can decide over others but hopefully not complain as much to the people in charge who were tired of hearing them.

Yeah. And I wish for was that I could've been taught this little story a bit earlier than mid20ies.... 30ies... what ever age it was, it felt like too little, too late you lovely idealistic stupid person who wants to do a good job all the time and take pride in it.

I guess it's just one of those things you have to experience to get?

Now, how do I phrase that in a less sarcastic and more positive way in an email?

Btw, Charmed has a nice episode about looking into the future and staring at your choices from the past... something to do with "not settling" and "all you do have consequences" and "you decide what you want to happen". Not much to do with this post really, but as I run with analogies and popular cultural references I'd thought about now. Maybe there's a rap song somewhere with phrases like "they're gonna try and take you down, you don't shoot but stare them to the ground" or something.... (can you tell it's been a while since I listened to the 'talk'... )

Parental leave

Another of those articles in NYT, this time about the Swedish phenomena "parental leave". It's titeled "In Sweden, the men can have it all". I have to admit, it's not all roses and there is something to be said about the problems on being viewed as "the woman who probably will take 10 months off with pay" when being in their 30ies and looking for a job, but in all pales when faced with the realities of parents in other countries (mostly thinking about the US right now, obvious reasons).

Anyway, I have high lighted some things from the article that I find interesting.
"Among those with university degrees, a growing number of couples split the leave evenly; some switch back and forth every few months to avoid one parent assuming a dominant role — or being away from jobs too long. The higher women rank, the more they resemble men: few male chief executives take parental leave — but neither do the few female chief executives. "

"Eight in 10 fathers now take a third of the total 13 months of leave — and 9 percent of fathers take 40 percent of the total or more — up from 4 percent a decade ago."

"In Sodermalm, Stockholm’s trendy south island, the days of fathers taking only two months are clearly over. Men with strollers walk in the park, chat in cafes, stock up at the supermarket..."
This was one of the things I haven't thought about too much but was made clear to me last year while on vacation. My travel companion pointed out, a number of times, how many men in groups with strollers that we saw... all over the city... and on the bus... and they seemed having a good time and there was no women around these small children. It was indeed one important moment for me too. I clearly forget that my upbringing and traditions are indeed different than here in the South. (I'm not saying dads aren't involved here, I'm simply saying it is less overt and less easy.)

"Claes Boklund, a 35-year-old Web designer taking 10 months off with 19-month-old Harry, admits he was scared at first: the baby, the cooking, the cleaning, the sleepless nights. Six months into his leave, he says, he is confident around Harry"
I would think that most mothers are fairly scared around the baby the first few days too... but society kind of tells us that "women automatically knows what to do"...

But, all of this must cost money. What's the numbers?
"Taxes account for 47 percent of GDP, compared with 27 percent in the United States and 40 percent in the European Union overall. The public sector, famous for family-friendly perks, employs one in three workers, including half of all working women. Family benefits cost 3.3 percent of G.D.P., the highest in the world along with Denmark and France, said Willem Adema, senior economist at the OECD."

This means, for regular people, that the income tax is somewhere around 32% (as a starting point for average income person) and rising, tax on stuff you buy in the store (alcohol and tobacco and gas excluded - these are higher taxed goods) is 25%. And a number of other taxes will add on. What do you get? Among other things (no tuition on universities, schools and lunches included in many schools);

"With full-time preschool guaranteed at a maximum of about $150 a month and leave paid at 80 percent of salary up to $3,330 a month, “people feel that they are getting their money’s worth.” Parents may use their 390 days of paid leave however they want up to the child’s eighth birthday — monthly, weekly, daily and even hourly — a schedule that leaves particularly small, private employers scrambling to adapt."

And then the last part, as I mentioned in the beginning, "Small businesses find it particularly tricky to juggle absences, said Sofia Bergstrom, social insurance expert at the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise, which represents 60,000 companies. Worse than parental leave, she says, is the 120-day annual allowance for parents to tend to sick children, which is impossible to plan and which is suspected of being widely abused"

In general though, I wonder if it isn't the last comment of the article that sums up my own feeling about life and the ponderings about moving back. "Graduates used to look for big paychecks. Now they want work-life balance."

Remember, 5 weeks of vacation a year..... that's not too bad either. But sure, you will not be Rich and someone will take money from you to redistribute them to others. And one lands in the discussion that "it might not be great, but it seems better than the other side of the spectrum, at least in my humble opinion". And I don't know what I'd do if the US decided to implement some of this thinking for potential dads... and mothers... considering that where I currently work there is no fatherly leave, and only a few weeks of unpaid maternal leave, which I find appalling. Then we haven't even approached the strangeness of "sick child leave".*


*most of my experience with this here in the US have indicated that it is ok for many non-hourly people to just leave work in order to go and pick up a sick child... it's also sort of understood if one doesn't come in one day due to child's sick, even if it might not be mandated by the work policy... this imho is strange since it gives off an idea that it is ok to "sort of lie", not to mention that others have to pick up the slack. It would be so much better with a more realistic system, that allowed for both men and woman to take care of their children in an orderly fashion. After all, don't we want involved dads and women with jobs? (maybe we don't?)