Have a break...

This week has been something of a slow one for me - not intentionally, i might add. After having a long spell of unbroken experimenting, my cells have reached the end of their useful life and so i have the joys of thawing some more out and waiting for them to grow. This is not always an easy task as you might imagine - the cryotubes containing the cells, if overfilled or not particularly sturdy, can happily explode at the drop of a hat. This happened to me yesterday - fortunately, i was kneeling on the floor trying to sort out the liquid nitrogen container and so managed to avoid all the cryotube shrapnel. Suffice to say, i was very very cautious when i had to get more tubes out later on.

In some ways, i feel a little guilty having such an easy week. I'm still doing experiments, i should add, but the behind-the-scenes controls and negatives that are required but perhaps not quite as interesting. But then in other ways, part of me is enjoying it as much I can. Figuring that i've been in the lab virtually every day since the day after i arrived, i deserve to have a bit of a breather. This has also given me a bit more time to catch up on reading papers, making some notes and other desk stuff as well. Of course, the good thing about this stuff, is that it doesn't necessarily have to be done in the lab. I think the local coffee shops may have had a slight upturn in takings this week! Oh, and a minor Ophelia Update: She seems to have drifted off up North and so likely isn't going to be making any toilet stops in Charleston soon.