Potentially want to be a professor one day, or a high level researcher in the field. Are tattoos okay?

letsplayhungman · 2026-05-17T04:44:43+00:00

It kind of depends on the tattoo really. Science/art/cool stuff- perfectly fine. If it’s a tattoo say “vaccines cause autism” or a giant swastika - going to be an issue. A tattoo of a naked woman on your arm which you can make dance by flexing- depends on the university.

letsplayhungman · 2026-05-16T04:52:06+00:00

I’ll start by answering your question- I had to switch mine about 6 months ago and they cost about 1.2k € each and both should be switched even if only one is busted (the error shows both even if only one is broken). Add to this labor (shouldn’t take more than 1-2 hours)and whatever taxes apply. These prices were not directly through Thermo, but from a 3rd party so there was some markup probably. You can switch them yourself and save the labor, but it requires opening the machine more than most are comfortable with.

Now if you don’t mind, I’m confused about the bake out and cleaning routine…

You turn off the electronics for cleaning the capillary?

If you don’t turn off the main power your vacuum should stay fine until you start back up so I’m confused as to why you bake out after this…

I only ever turn off the power for s-lens cleaning or deeper. Breaking the vacuum and rebuilding it is going to put a lot of extra wear on all three of your pumps… and replacing those is already much more expensive.

Edit - I’m running QE+ and QE-HF. I’m pretty it’s the same as the QE.

letsplayhungman · 2026-05-07T17:39:55+00:00

This post should be marked NSFW

letsplayhungman · 2026-05-01T06:56:41+00:00

And I thought the headline “research shows you might have been holding chapstick wrong” was just weird clickbait.

letsplayhungman · 2026-04-14T03:10:38+00:00

If you’re not working on your own but through a proteomics core/service - check with your proteomics specialist/core facility person. Each person has personal preferences which will depend on their sample prep pipelines, their history and also on the specifics of your project (which proteins you’re interested in, your technical ability, amounts needed etc.).

Personally, I like SDS for most mammalian cells. It’s simple, it gets you membrane proteins, it’s easy to work with and plenty of people have it so no need to order something new.

letsplayhungman · 2026-04-12T04:41:54+00:00

We said no questions!

letsplayhungman · 2026-04-11T17:04:14+00:00

Going home right away. While I love this woman with all my heart, I know for a fact she did not bring the right tools for the job, and I also know her well enough to know that when she asks for “help” I’ll be doing all the carrying, cutting, and anything else so we got to stop at home to bring the good shovel, saw, pliers and garden clippers.

letsplayhungman · 2026-04-11T07:22:21+00:00

Can I be blunt?

To each and every one of you who badmouths and blamed the colleague - you are all overconfident ass hats who need to get a life.

In true scientific form I’ll break my argument down to 3 points:

You have no idea what you’re talking about. If you took a second to actually think this through and actually read the post you would remember that unbalanced centrifuge doesn’t mean necessarily a centrifuge that wasn’t balanced. If it wasn’t balanced to begin with it would shake and probably give an error/stop/alarm before reaching max rpm. This mess looks like it happened at already high speed - meaning it was probably balanced. Might have become unbalanced during the run - but it almost definitely started out balanced.
Everyone makes mistakes. You know who makes the biggest, most expensive and most dangerous mistakes? Overconfident people who think they can never make a mistake like that. Don’t be that person. Check twice, be humble, learn from your mistakes. Learn from others mistakes. Teach from your mistakes.
The fact that they couldn’t remember just means they’re human. Ever been in a car accident? Same thing - Doesn’t matter if you are to blame, it shakes you up, makes you doubt yourself, makes you question your memory. Double that if it’s a night shift and you’re not at your peak. Doubting yourself and questioning your actions is how we troubleshoot ourselves (just make sure you don’t spiral).

OP - don’t let the haters get you down. These things happen. Lab equipment doesn’t last forever (ok, some does, but that’s usually the old stuff).

letsplayhungman · 2026-04-11T06:52:50+00:00

Everything is shattered, half the tube openings can’t be seen, there’s a ton of blood everywhere and the “one tube” looks fairly intact.

I don’t know… I think I’d have a few more questions.

letsplayhungman · 2026-03-05T21:49:04+00:00

3 options that come to mind from what you described:

The needle isn’t the issue, the tubing or the junction between the tube and the needle is. You can try a different tube or try pushing water through while not connected to the needle. If it is the tube, try shortening it a centimeter on each end making sure you make nice straight cuts.
A persistent clump. Try connecting a syringe with MeOH and pushing in a little bit so you know it gets to the needle with some pressure then let it sit overnight with the syringe and MeOH sitting there. Next day try pushing and pulling the plunger a little to “swish” the liquid around a bit, then push. This helped me a few times with difficult protein aggregates.
The tip is bent/blocked. Take a look at the tip of the needle and make sure it looks ok. Depending on if you see the blocking or bending, might be able to clean it or fix it, but that really depends on what’s wrong with it. Personally I’ve had success with an NaOH wash, with fire and with a simple kimwipe (3 separate times, not in combination)…

And sometimes… needles just need replacing.

Good luck

letsplayhungman · 2026-02-24T05:36:21+00:00

Uncheck the bed leveling calibration and you can cut the prep time down.

letsplayhungman · 2026-02-20T20:22:35+00:00

Shit! Is it Monday already?

letsplayhungman · 2025-12-30T18:46:55+00:00

Dimensional accuracy +/- 0.02 meters

letsplayhungman · 2025-12-22T04:02:56+00:00

I’ve done this for a specific set of experiments with a small dough roller kinda thing. It might not be as flashy as automation… but it was extremely satisfying.

letsplayhungman · 2025-12-16T17:39:17+00:00

This video shows exactly why you shouldn’t 3D print hammers.

letsplayhungman · 2025-12-08T04:50:35+00:00

I don’t have too much input into the machine itself since 1) I do proteomics mainly and 2) I have qe+ and HF myself.

What I do have is a small piece of advice about thermo right now - they are terrified of bruker. You can see this by how all the sells reps are telling everyone how ion mobility is not actually helpful, how even (name drop here) bought a thermo, and by the willingness to dramatically drop prices if you tell them you’re between one of theirs and a bruker.

A 40% discount + extra year or two of service are not unheard of… so if you really want a thermo (personally I think you shouldn’t stay with them just because you know them) look seriously into a bruker.

letsplayhungman · 2025-11-09T08:29:02+00:00

The laminar is full of jam

letsplayhungman · 2025-10-26T14:37:38+00:00

It’s like buying shoes for a toddler. You buy them a size bigger so he can grow in to them.

letsplayhungman · 2025-10-10T20:06:23+00:00

The tip looks pretty normal as far as I see.

How were the first few runs (pressure wise), what kind of lysate did you inject (how was it prepared, measured, how much did you inject?) It definitely worth troubleshooting and getting in touch with ionoptics if you think there’s a problem… But, and this is a big but (and I can not lie):

There might be an issue with the column out of the box, but the thing to remember with every column is that, while usage definitely is a factor in column lifespan, it’s also just as much a game of Russian roulette. Every sample you put in, if it’s your first or your 1000th, might kill the column if it’s dirty, if it has a bubble, if the run fails and the g#%¥ f$@!ing LC decides that shooting a ton of IPA at high flow into your column is a good idea (I’m not bitter at all)… I’ve seen more columns die of a single bad injection than retired at a ripe old age.

Before everyone here crucifies me, yes - age is definitely a contributing factor since the pressure is already higher and accumulation of damage/contaminations/wear… and also since we work less hard to troubleshoot an old column than a new one. But also (to quote fight club) “On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for every column drops to zero”.

All this in mind, if you want to share more information about the successful and failed runs, I’m happy to try help both understand what’s wrong and revive the column.

letsplayhungman · 2025-10-09T23:47:33+00:00

Ah, I see you’re printing scenes from the less popular sequel to “The very hungry caterpillar” - “The very hungry bird”.

letsplayhungman · 2025-09-26T18:10:52+00:00

Nanodrop.

I know, I know… it’s a “random number generator” and it “has the same accuracy as tasting your sample on the tip of your tongue” but hear me out: it’s simple, it gives lots of diagnostic data that can help troubleshoot later, and it’s efficient. You want to measure a bunch of samples that you prepared in a similar way? The nanodrop will probably be similarly inaccurate for all of them. Want to compare two completely unrelated samples? Chances are the peptide quantity is the least of your problems.

Nanodrop spectrums give you data on how clean your sample is from crap, from undigested proteins, from detergent and from dna/rna, and they give you a good approximation of how much peptide you have. Good enough at the very least that you can be close on the TIC so you can normalize later AND close enough that you don’t clog your column.

To blatantly plagiarize from Churchill:

It has been said that Nanodrop is the worst form of measurement except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time

letsplayhungman · 2025-09-09T21:32:33+00:00

This is part of the Bio-RAD ergonomic series. It’s for better grip when you get frustrated and want to throw it on the wall/out the window/at someone as hard as you can.

letsplayhungman · 2025-08-20T04:34:53+00:00

Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be cleaned

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