#lab members didn't know how to use micropipette

[virginhater]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

[yangsrose]

final part, i think

Now we're on to part three of the lab, working with the dilutions that out partners made and figuring out their absorbances and max wavelengths and such. Basic stuff, right? My partner had been micropipetting and diluting shit since the start of the lab (yes, it took two hours that's how many we had to do). So my partner comes with our dilutions and the other girl's partner brings hers too. Anyway me being human, I had to run to the restroom so i did so. When I came back, the other group was nearly finished with part 3. So instead I went over to my partner to explain everything that happened in the lab and got her caught up. The other group announced that they were done so I look over at the values, and then I notice a strange trend.

All of the absorbance values are negative. That shouldn't be possible at all. So I asked them how they blanked the meter and how they're running the absorbances and now they're offended that I thought they were doing something wrong. Then I explained that the measured absorbances are supposed to be at least a little close to the theoretical ones but no they were still mad that I was doubting that they didn't know how the meter worked. So now my TA comes around and looks at our values and confirms it, they're all wrong. And not just a couple decimal points off, they were just wrong period.

And, guess what, they blanked it wrong :D And they used the wrong cuvettes (they blanked with plastic and on the wrong side and they measured all the other absorbances with the quartz cuvette so it was all off). They were wrong from the beginning and I was too tired to laugh or react. So then there I was, working the stupid meter again because no one watched the tutorial on how to do it (and my partner who did watch the videos was stuck doing calculations to catch up on the lab while she was diluting things).

Four hours passed in total, and keep in mind that our lab periods are four hours long, and now I had to redo all of part three because they were just wrong. So I'm using the closest solutions to me to test them and still the absorbances were way off, so now the other group was saying that it must've been the machine that was off and everything. So, me putting two and two together, I ask who's dilutions were the ones we were putting in. No surprise here, it was the other groups. So I ask my partner to bring ours over, just to compare values, and when we do you can guess what happened. My partner's absorbances were much much closer to the theoretical ones. So the other group laughed it off and I did my own fake laugh while I died inside redoing all the absorbances with my partner's dilutions because they just diluted everything wrong and... ugh. it was not a good day that day. I had to stay an hour after lab was supposed to end so it was super freaking dark outside and all the scary people made their way onto campus and it was just not it.

crys. all i would like to say is the dedication that your partner had to micropipette for TWO HOURS i would have left the lab

hold on negative absorptions- what-

OH NOOOOO THAT'S THE WORST CUVETTES ARE LITERALLY THE MOST FRUSTRATING THING we had to restart ours because one of our bench members accidentally touched and and left his finger prints on it 😭

oh good lord four hours- the patience you have

oh my god that sounds horrible i'm so sorry :(( but from all of this all i can say is whoever takes a biochem lab: you are insane but amazing i could never