40 Hours of lab within 5 days

40 hours in 5 days.



Well... this was the schedule for all Summer Research students. Some even do more than this because their professors are too hardworking. Thankful enough, mine is not. In fact, everyday I go to the lab at about 10am and leave normally at 530pm .... apart from the daily report and assisting my mentor I don't really do anything. It is not like I could contribute any ideas to their projects .... just that what they are doing are really really hardcore chemistry stuff .... with my knowledge .... I don't think I could even whimper in their discussion ...



So, what I learned most over this week is the lab skills. Mostly WASHING ... yes, true enough, in our usual teaching lab (the ones we have for our lesson), we have people to clean things up for us if we didn't do a good job .... In contrast, in research lab, you will get back what you washed. Here comes the problem: I am not a very thorough person. Every time I wash something, I am sure to leave out a spot or two...... My mentor wasn't impressed at all .... She kept bragging about 'You know, in France, our first lesson is always to teach us how to WASH ... bla bla bla ...' ..So, I spent my whole week learning how to wash ... And it came with a price ...



You see, when we wash something, there is this little routine that we have to follow.

1. Identify the type of waste in the apparatus (organic or inorganic or precipitate ...etc)

2. Hence choose a suitable solvent. Methanol for inorganic, soap for organic, brush for precipitate .... bla bla bla ...

3. If still there is stain .... we usually throw it. But when it comes to expensive stuff like NMR tubes, we have to put them in special chemical to immerse them for a few hours ...

4. Drying ....Since the research team I joined works fundamentally on Phosphorus aka organic... it is REALLY IMPORTANT, Yo repito: es muy importante, to ensure the apparatus are absolutely 100% dry. So we have to rinse it with acetone (propanone) first because it vapourises very fast. And since vapourisation is endothermic, it gives you frost bite if it touches your skin (trust me, gloves are useless aginst cold) ... Sorry for the chemistry blabbing ... need some outlet here por favor ... Lastly we dry them in an oven overnight...

5. Inspection. Every morning as I take them out from the oven, my mentor will check and start rejecting half of them .... as mean as it seems, I am aware that even a small mistake like a dirty apparatus could change everything ....



Between getting all the frost bites (including while handling liquid nitrogen) and smelling the most disgusting chemicals, you name it you got it .... I end up losing my appetite every lunch ... maybe I don't cut it as a lab person after all ... we'll see ...



Despite all these, I am still looking forward to next Monday. I think this more or less has to do with my mentor ... Don't get me wrong. She is over 50 and married with kids .... not my type exactly ... I mean she slowly allows me to handle more things as it goes by. She even allowed me to do some small reactions by myself by the end of the week .... =).... sounds like kindergarten kids .... haih ...



1 week down. 9 more to go!!