Most common mistake? that’s a tricky one because I am trying to think of something that all types of scientists might do, that does not depend on the TYPE of science they do.
Well, I can tell you about a really annoying mistake that I have made… it was during an experiment called a Western blot.
In a Western blot, you take the proteins out of the cells and transfer them to a membrane so that you can then see them, and see how much of each protein there is. It’s really important to put the membrane in the apparatus the right way around so that when you transfer the proteins, they go ONTO the membrane and not the other way – into the water that surrounds the membrane.
Well… you can probably guess what happened. After growing my special and very precious cells for weeks, treating them with chemicals and caring for them to keep them alive, I then carefully extracted the proteins and spent a day or so performing the Western blot experiment… only to find NO PROTEINS on the membrane…
of course I had put it in the wrong way around and the proteins were lost forever in the water and I had to start the experiment again.
When you are doing experiments, sometimes they don’t work and that’s normal. You often have to tweak and repeat experiments to get them just right. BUT nothing is quite so annoying that when time and effort is wasted because you make a silly mistake like putting the membrane in the wrong way! AAAAAAh/
Kate has made a good point: it depends on what science you do in the lab (and a lot of science is not done in a lab, of course).
I can think of three common kinds of mistake:
1. The most serious kind, perhaps, is where someone starts to do an experiment without first planning it properly. Then all kinds of things can go wrong that you should have thought of in the first place.
2. Then you have the irritating kind of small mistake (like Kate’s example) that is your fault.
3. And then you have the irritating kind of problem that is caused by your mistake in assuming that all the lab equipment is going to work properly! ;-p
awesomekid
Most common mistake? that’s a tricky one because I am trying to think of something that all types of scientists might do, that does not depend on the TYPE of science they do.
Well, I can tell you about a really annoying mistake that I have made… it was during an experiment called a Western blot.
In a Western blot, you take the proteins out of the cells and transfer them to a membrane so that you can then see them, and see how much of each protein there is. It’s really important to put the membrane in the apparatus the right way around so that when you transfer the proteins, they go ONTO the membrane and not the other way – into the water that surrounds the membrane.
Well… you can probably guess what happened. After growing my special and very precious cells for weeks, treating them with chemicals and caring for them to keep them alive, I then carefully extracted the proteins and spent a day or so performing the Western blot experiment… only to find NO PROTEINS on the membrane…
of course I had put it in the wrong way around and the proteins were lost forever in the water and I had to start the experiment again.
When you are doing experiments, sometimes they don’t work and that’s normal. You often have to tweak and repeat experiments to get them just right. BUT nothing is quite so annoying that when time and effort is wasted because you make a silly mistake like putting the membrane in the wrong way! AAAAAAh/
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Kate has made a good point: it depends on what science you do in the lab (and a lot of science is not done in a lab, of course).
I can think of three common kinds of mistake:
1. The most serious kind, perhaps, is where someone starts to do an experiment without first planning it properly. Then all kinds of things can go wrong that you should have thought of in the first place.
2. Then you have the irritating kind of small mistake (like Kate’s example) that is your fault.
3. And then you have the irritating kind of problem that is caused by your mistake in assuming that all the lab equipment is going to work properly! ;-p
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