...most of the time. Sometimes, though, it can be a real pain. Like yesterday, for example.
The day started with a midterm exam in Thermodynamics. I was not as prepared as I should have been, so it was difficult. Having said that, however, I came away from the exam feeling I did better than I expected to do. We'll see.
From there I went over to Biochem. Regular readers will recall that I've been to this particular party before. We spent the hour discussing gluconeogenesis, the process by which the body makes glucose from other carbon sources. It's essentially a reversal of the citric acid cycle, with a couple of bypass steps to make the process energetically favorable. True, most cells in the body can use almost any reduced carbon supply as a fuel source, but certain parts of the body (like the brain) can only use glucose. Pay attention, Atkins dieters, this part's about you.
Then it was off to lab. I've missed a couple of lab periods, thanks in large part to the uninvited guests previously referenced. So I'm making the time up this week. I arrived at the lab this afternoon at 1:00 and was sent downstairs to the Mass Spectrometry lab. For those not familiar with Mass Spec, imagine having a box that you can't open. So you zap it with a lightning bolt until it explodes, pick up the pieces, and weigh them, and from that information you deduce what was in the box to start with. That's essentially how Mass Spec works, except at the molecular level. The actual experimentation is easy; the machine (excuse me, the
instrument, we don't refer to a half-a-million dollar piece of equipment as a
machine) does all the sample processing. Interpreting the resulting data is the tricky part.
Then I started another lab. This one involves a pseudo-metabolic reaction catalyzed by an enzyme. The reaction produces a vivid yellow product; as the reaction proceeds, the color intensifies. By measuring the intensity of this color, kinetic data about the reaction, such as the reaction rate, can be determined. Fascinating stuff.
Well, almost. I've become convinced that the main point of these labs is to teach would-be researchers that you must always be on guard against
Murphy's Law. I found out that most of my original (i.e., pre-lab) calculations were off by a factor of 10. That's no big deal, though, you just have to know which way to move the decimal point. After correcting my calculations, washing an unnatural amount of precision glassware, and making up all my standards, I began with a test run of the, ahem, instrument. It was only then that I found out that the enzyme I'd used was most likely dead or impure. So I had to remake my enzyme solution. At this point, it was approaching 8:30, and everyone else was gone. So I dutifully stored my standards in the stockroom refrigerator - the stuff hydrolyzes at room temperature, which would necessitate making all new standards next time, and that's just
not going to happen. I bade the TA a good evening and limped down to Subway to get a hot steak and cheese sandwich and wait for the next bus home.
I got home, tried to collapse into bed, and found that I couldn't sleep. So I ran a hot bath and soaked for half an hour or so. Then I watched the last 20 minutes or so of Shrek 2 with one of my roommates and his sig. ot. Then I went to bed, and managed to fall asleep this time.
A few weeks ago, my department advisor sent out a survey to all of the seniors in the department. In it, he asked the usual questions about classes and instructors and departmental testing. There was also a question asking what each person's plans were following graduation. Along with the usual responses like 'Research position', 'Medical school', 'Industrial position', and the like, there was an option called 'Something noble (Peace Corps, etc.)'. I wrote back and asked, "Would teaching high school chemistry be considered 'noble'?"
My advisor's response: "YES!!"
So that's what gets me through days like this: the knowledge that I'm laboring in a noble cause. That, and the fact that I'll be done in less than a year. I'm going to make it.
