As I mentioned in the last post, I have felt stuck with one particular step in my experiments. I am trying to use a pair of optical tweezers to stretch out a piece of DNA. However, the DNA is too small to manipulate directly, so i need to attach each end to a micron-sized polystyrene sphere, which I can move around with the lasers of the optical tweezers. The tricky part of this process is finding pairs of beads that are actually connected by DNA. I am still not sure whether I have actually made such pairs, although I have seen tantalizing hints that remind me of Loch Ness monster or Bigfoot sightings.
To get unstuck, I tried a meta-experiment: I posted each step of the process on my Picasa website. This forced me to understand each step of the procedure and unleashed a flood of questions: did I clean the Plexiglas and coverslip thoroughly enough? Are the solutions of microspheres that I am using still good? What about the DNA? How long do I need to incubate with BSA? What if I coat the whole surface of a glass coverslip with anti-dig? Will anyone reading this blog know what I'm talking about? And so on.
Talking with my friends in the neighboring labs was also vital to getting unstuck. They asked great questions from an outsider's perspective that forced me to re-evaluate things that I took for granted (why do I need to flow liquid through the flow cell? etc.). It also gave me chance to see what they do with their experiments. While I use a refrigerator/freezer to store my DNA and microsphere solutions, they use an oven to make their nanotube samples. However, their vacuum chamber (for studying field emission) and X-Ray Diffraction machine have no kitchen equivalents. In addition, I got to see photos of Zhi Han's recent honeymoon to Spain and Morocco (I'm tempted to buy a ticket right now) and to discuss the body, acidity, and aroma of some freshly-prepared gourmet coffee with Wei Keong.
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