Difficulty in time control within a fly lab
By Raymond on Apr 13, 2009 in Lab, Science and Research
Because of experiments, I missed the class picnic, the lab picnic and Hong Kong student gathering this week. Some friends, including many biology students, may not understand why I am attached to lab work so much, and some think that I am a workaholic. Such a situation is partly caused by the model organism our lab is using: fruitfly. Compared with simpler organisms like nematodes, the life cycle of flies is rather long and we cannot obtain progenies with appropriate genotypes within a short time after crosses. Compared with higher organisms like mice, the life cycle of flies is short (around 11days for one generation at room temperature, see figure). Experiments done on 5 days old flies and 10 days old fly may lead to different results, while it is not a great matter to mice. I am also using a temperature-sensitive genetic driver, so it is inappropriate for me to slow down or speed up the flies’ growth by adjusting the temperature.
Sometimes I tell the freshman and sophomore that it may not be a good idea to work in a fly lab during undergrad. The exact timing of experiments is always out of control. Courses often crash with the experiments. When we are too busy for experiments, we still have to squeeze out time to take care of the flies when they are born. When we have plenty of time for experiments, we can do nothing if the flies are not born.
Beginners generally feel that the time they spend on commutating between dormitory and classrooms is much longer than doing experiments. For example, we always collect virgins for crossings to ensure genotype of the progeny. Virgins should be collected in the morning, in the afternoon and at night. It takes only around half an hour to collect them each time, but the students have to consider: Should I stay in the lab for the whole day and skip my classes/activities, or should I rush between the classroom and the lab for 3 times today?
Anyway, I have learnt quite a lot in the fly lab. One of the abilities I have developed is the power of foreseeing. I always have to plan my work and holiday very early, usually a month forward.
Well, usually you may not be able to see things a month ahead, so we have to get used to uncertainty and temporarily giving up sth~~
Raymond Reply:
April 21st, 2009 at 9:26 pm
u r right:) so Im gonna switch to another model organism~ which sch are u from?
zly | Apr 15, 2009 | Reply