Science: Lab Work

So during the summer, I've been working as a lab assistant for the professor I normally TA for doing DNA extractions. It makes me feel super smart to be handling all of this expensive equipment and chemicals. Unfortunately, it really is just that. As of yet, I don't understand most of what I'm doing. Oh don't get me wrong, I've got the processes down. The pipette technique is second nature and I know every step of the protocol for both Monttia and Calceolaria perfectly. I've even helped run the DNA tests afterward, but really I have no idea how to read and interpret the DNA smears that come out. (Although honestly watching them glow orange is SUPER cool.) I feel like smacking my forehead because I know I learned about this stuff in MMBIO 240 but true to typical student nature, I've already forgot most of it. I could recite to you half asleep every step of the protocol with the exact amounts and little tips for getting stuff right, but I couldn't tell you for the life of me what each chemical is used for. The professor is nice and stops to explain it to me - when he's around. Which to be honest is almost never. If I were to be more honest about my job, I'd say I'm a personal assistant. As soon as I finish the Monttia in here, I'll move up to herbarium and start cataloguing some stuff for him. Really I'm just the hands to finish the work he has absolutely no time to do. It's a good job, but despite how smart I sound I really feel like an idiot. Someday I'll sit down and google the stuff I work with and find out exactly what I'm doing . . . Nah. I'll just blog instead. :)

Photos of work: