How long have I been doing this?

Every summer we get a new crop of students/employees. I spend the majority of each summer training, handholding, generally getting nothing done. Our lab is a popular lab with research residents and med students looking to get experience. Mostly because my boss is too nice to say no to anyone.

Training research residents is far different than training grad students/post docs. They are generally very driven and not used to failure. All the ones we have had in our lab have been very good and it has been a pleasure to get to know them. One of the things I have to remind them is that it is okay to make mistakes as long as they don't keep making the same mistake over and over. I was teaching a new research resident how to do a Western Blot and stressed a couple of points. I told him that I learned the importance of paying attention to each detail because I had made many mistakes when I let my mind wander or just didn't take the time to follow the protocol. I gave him a couple examples of some of my dumber mistakes and then we moved on. I, of course, was teaching him from the stand point of experience and the belief that I was beyond such mistakes. Well, I made another one today.

We are in the process of getting a grant ready for submission and are in need of some data. I have been tasked with getting some DNA constructs amplified, purified, and isolated in preparation for a FRET experiement on Friday. Everything was on track until this morning. I prep'd three DNA constructs that we needed to use by transforming E. coli with the DNA constructs (essentially co-opting the bacteria to mass produce my DNA). Once I got bacterial colonies on an agar plate, I picked individual colonies to grow in broth overnight. The growth was successful and I isolated the DNA this morning. I got all the way done with the experiment and then threw out one of the DNA samples by accident. Pure stupidity. It goes to prove that no matter how long you have been doing something, you can still make mistakes if you don't pay attention.