Things are finally returning to normal over at the Chandler Lab. All this means is that every second of spare time is taken up by the multitude of assignments I have been given. My attention is being split between two organisms: Arabidopsis Thalina (Member of mustard family) and Zea Mays (Corn). Yesterday, in between batches of PCR for mop3 mutants of infant Indian corn, I was learning how to harvest seeds from the tiny mustard plant. The seeds were taken from the plant at a stage in its life cycle that is commonly referred to as dead. As Josh pointed out, these plants are incredibly prolific for something so small, and the consequence of playing with the brittle stems was that I left the Marley building likely covered in these seeds that are about the size of grains of sand.
Before the 2 hour cycle of PCR was finished, I made my way back Bio5 in order to continue the quest to regain my building access codes. This involved riding the elevator up to the lab to get a signature, and then taking that signature to the from desk only to find out the signed form is one they have never seen before.
Once the PCR cycle was finished, I took the contents and filled a standard gel, and set it to run. As soon as the bubbles began to rise from the nodes in the dish, I went back to finish the harvesting in process on the 8th floor of the Marley building.
O yea, I stopped in to visit my children in Greenhouse #5.
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By the way a PCR is a procedure that is supposed to amplify the quantity of a sample of DNA, and running a gel means preforming gel electrophoresis which is a tool to determine characteristics of that segment of DNA. If a more detailed explanation is needed do not hesitate to ask!
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