Due to popular demand

In general, most of my lab oriented work has come to a grinding halt. Which is more than a little frustrating considering that my microarray slides are waiting in storage at the KI analysis facility (BEA). I'v narrowed down the issue to expired reagents as the source of my problems in quality controlling my RNA. For that reason I will not extract any more RNA, or do any other RNA work until I've received and tested the new RNA analysis kit I just ordered. Anything else would be a waste of my precious time and samples. Apart from that, I've gotten some kind assistance from my colleagues in trying out different RNA extraction kits and methods to see if I can optimize my protocol for a higher yield of good quality RNA.

On a more positive note, me and my good friend and colleague Tom got invited the the departmental plant ecology meeting to hold a condensed seminar on the first session of the workshop we hosted in communication, feedback and presentation techniques. The emphasis will be on promoting a better 'feedback-culture', since most of us agree that the scientific community could do good with a lecture on how to communicate properly.

I feel honored to have been given this opportunity and I'm hoping for a large, enthusiastic and diverse audience so we can spark some interesting discussions.
I also feel that this is a testimony to the success of the workshop, and depending on the outcome of the seminar we could be looking at another workshop next year. Likely the same format, but with some fine tuning and improvements based on previous participant evaluations. However, it will only happen if we're asked (read begged), since both me and Tom are in no need of extra credits (HP) and are only doing it because we like the subject.
Stay tuned.