Dataset Cthulhu: Aka, where I went this last month (the cold room).

Dataset Cthulhu:

• Against all odds, I actually managed to pull off the infamous contingency plan omega. Have I mentioned that my EPR sample-prep protocols are cruel? I do not recommend attempting SDSL of persnickety* proteins unless you have a lot of moxie. And persistence. And the ability to work five 16hr shifts followed by a 38hr shift. Note: my protocol looks almost nothing like the one on the Wiki, although it's about what I started with. But I digress. The point is I finally got the last sample needed for dataset Cthulhu to work beautifully. The data are very pretty, my best ever. Except:
• I've been working on a hypothesis. We shall call him Fred. Dataset Cthulhu is the preliminary data to support Fred. Cthulhu involves examining eight various combos. Combos 1-7 all say: Fred. Combo 8 (the result of contingency plan omega) says: Fnord. Well, huh. Now I have to try to design experiments to see if I am really looking at a Fnord, or if Fnord is a Fred in disguise. Fnord doesn't invalidate Fred, but it might complicate and confuse him a bit. Back to the literature! (Someone should make that a movie).
• We were totally far along on the draft for Paper 1 (short technical/groundwork mid-level-I-hope paper). Fnords might involve some heavy re-write. This is what we get for working ahead.
  

*Persnickety: Highly sensitive to temperature, buffer conditions, pH, time of day, astrological phenomena, cosolutes, concentration, and vibrational motion. Is known to crash out if you : vortex the tube (even on gentle-don't do it!) let it get above 4C for even a second, keep it at 4C for "too long"--highly variable, centrifuge it "too hard", sneeze while holding the tube, play music it doesn't like, or look at it funny. Is fond of Brian May for reasons unknown. Cannot be correctly re-folded by any known method. Yes, I need the active form.