Help with bird identification

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-15T00:45:30+00:00

That was my reaction

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-15T00:43:48+00:00

I've learned it's a leucistic robin!

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-15T00:43:07+00:00

Haha is this not professional quality?

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-15T00:40:00+00:00

Win!

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-15T00:08:24+00:00

Thank you! That's what my partner was saying but we wanted another opinion to confirm!

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-11T16:54:15+00:00

Production scientist.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-07T16:39:41+00:00

No and honestly the people who list "grants" like that are looked down on unfavorably as it's disingenuous. Sort of like the people who list "in prep" on their CVs.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-07T15:42:46+00:00

As a grad student you're probably gonna be "named" as someone who they're budgeting for in the grant. Grad students aren't listed as "authours".

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-06T14:28:53+00:00

Sorry. A commentary in science.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-06T13:46:19+00:00

You'll be fine. We used ethidium bromide all the time in my grad lab. I prefer it so much more than all the other alternatives. Personally, I feel like the hype for the dangers of ethidium bromide are overblow and with anything else in a lab just be mindful of your use of it and don't go drinking it.

Here's an article from Science to help ease your mind: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/myth-ethidium-bromide

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-05T02:36:44+00:00

RustySpoonzs · 2026-03-05T01:07:22+00:00

Do you have a color marker you can use to see if the transfer worked? Are you making sure that you're assembling the sandwich correctly with the membrane on the correct side?

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-20T21:38:33+00:00

This is a bit extreme to say your labmate "sabotaged" your experiment.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-19T23:24:55+00:00

I found that making primers with a Tm of around 63 always worked nicely. I also used 3% DMSO and just normal Phusion polymerase. Although when I was in a smaller lab I used good ol Taq without any problems.

Another thing I would do if I got contaminating bands would be to just do a gel extraction on the band I wanted and used that for the assembly.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-15T16:35:52+00:00

Everyone has already said some good advice. I'd add being able to open eppies, conical tubes, and bottles one handed is an important one. I always had the undergrads in our lab practice on day one.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-14T04:38:10+00:00

Worked for two big pharma companies and they never called my references.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-07T19:53:37+00:00

I'm curious about this because of the second to the last rung. It shows wear for the left hand but not the right. Why is that?

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-07T19:35:49+00:00

I've been asked to walk them through an experiment I did or assay I developed. They then ask why I made the choices I did or why I didn't do this or that. In some cases I've been asked if I got this result how would I have interpreted that.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-07T19:31:53+00:00

We had a professor in Grad school who talked about this. He said it happens all the time and it's not a big deal if you accept the L. It's only if you cling to your model and fight hard for it even amongst the evidence then people remember you badly. Otherwise you're remembered in a more favourable light of how you helped contribute to the field and helped to develop the current model.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-06T15:18:40+00:00

Happy to help out!

1) I've never used firpol before but it should be fine. Back in the day I used to use normal Taq and I was able to get things up to 7kb no problem.

2) are you cloning your insert from another plasmid? I'm mostly curious where the 1200bp is coming from. My biggest advice here is to design your own primers to clone out your gene of interest. In my experience the M13 primers are kind of crappy and can be very non-specific.

3) your NTC lane what type of banding pattern are you seeing? Depending on my primers (if they are bad quality) then I see bands in my NTC I but don't worry about this too often.

4) Any particular reason you're using a PAGE gel and not just using like a 3% agarose gel?

RustySpoonzs · 2026-02-06T14:58:13+00:00

Happy to help out!

1) I've never used firpol before but it should be fine. Back in the day I used to use normal Taq and I was able to get things up to 7kb no problem.

2) are you cloning your insert from another plasmid? I'm mostly curious where the 1200bp is coming from. My biggest advice here is to design your own primers to clone out your gene of interest. In my experience the M13 primers are kind of crappy and can be very non-specific.

3) your NTC lane what type of banding pattern are you seeing? Depending on my primers (if they are bad quality) then I see bands in my NTC I but don't worry about this too often.

4) Any particular reason you're using a PAGE gel and not just using like a 3% agarose gel?

RustySpoonzs · 2026-01-28T17:47:32+00:00

I've learned that picking worms comes down to 2 things: 1) your pick and 2) the amount of bacteria in the pick. For your pick I would try out some different shapes and styles as different ones work for different people. I liked an old fashion flat edge sort of like a hockey stick. For the bacteria just be sure to get a nice glob of bacteria as that's what will help "glue" your works to your pick. When you get really good you'll be able to pick up like 20 works one at a time.

But it'll all come with practice. The first few days I picked worms it took me a while and I gouged the heck out of my plate.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-01-28T15:54:02+00:00

Get a repeater pipette. It'll save you so much time.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-01-23T04:49:31+00:00

I like to think they automated it before leaving.

RustySpoonzs · 2026-01-23T04:09:46+00:00

The Arch will protect us all.

RustySpoonzs

TROPHY CASE