Manuscript Submitted

Ahhhhhh.

My first ever First-Author (well, co-first author) paper has just been submitted. It's just a short little technical thing with the finally-finished data set Chtulhu, a bit about hypothesis Duh and the preliminary framework for hypothesis yet-unnamed. But! It is mine (and a few other peoples') and it is done and it is sent out into the aether. In my field, that's not bad for where I am in my degree.

Wish me luck!

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.

Gradschoolus Intteruptus

Actually I am currently MIA because I have the following on my "plate".

• Judging at a major regional high school science fair tomorrow. Don't LOL, is srys bznss. I haz 70 abstracts to read tonight.
  
• Big piles of science need to happen because S.W.A.M. is presenting at conference X in June that is so cool I can't even get in to go listen. She has promised to give me mad props if I can finish dataset Cthulhu by then.
  
• Final Exam/Paper for Scary Biophysics Class is due in a couple weeks.
  
• Annual Teaching Portfolio requirement for my Higher Ed minor due early May
• Oh, and on the subject of the Higher Ed minor, the date for the oral defense for my research requirement was moved from April 26ish to Tuesday. We -they do them in batches once a semester- were informed of this yesterday. To be fair, this wasn't anyone's fault in particular, but it still is less than fun. There is the option to re-schedule for the December slot, but I don't want to drag it out that much longer when I am so close. Will our heroine succeed or encounter massive FAIL? Check in next week to find out.