Like a kid on Christmas Eve

First off I just want to clarify the title. If anyone was wondering, Christmas Eve is the major event in Swedish Christmas celebrations, and not Christmas Day. That was today's bit of cultural knowledge for you. So now on to what I actually intended to say with this blog post.

A bit more than a week ago I was doing some major lab work, which unfortunately didn't work very well. In the end I narrowed down the issue to an expired kit of reagents.
I proceeded to talk with my supervisor about this (who is in possession of the big bag of money), and she supported my decision to buy a new kit.

However, just ordering the damn stuff was not as simple as your everyday internet shopping for clothes, the latest blockbuster on blu-ray or any other odd item from a dark corner of the internet (because I'm sure even that would have been easier).
After finally finding the product I wanted, in the less than straightforward online store - I mean where have you even bought anything online where a simple search function in the store has given you nothing, but a bloody google search did? - I, as a first time customer, had to register for an account.

I've been using other online services of the same company before and was convinced that I already had an account. Oh boy was I wrong. Sure enough, I found my login credentials, but apparently the web store had a separate login system. However, instead of telling me something along the lines of  'wrong password and/or username' or 'there is no such e-mail address in our system' when I tried to retrieve the password I thought I had changed and forgotten about, their webpage simply said that the webpage I'm trying to access could not be retrieved.

Stupid me didn't realise that making another registration was even an option until two days later, when the mysterious internet access failure was still there.
After registering and adding "new" delivery and billing addresses everything had to pass through manual confirmation by the company before they would send me anything, naturally.

I thought the day I would be back in the lab would never come, in my wait I even had time to realise that I need a plan B for my current method in case everything goes south, and proceeded to order another kit (for a different but related purpose), which for the record (and thankfully), was much easier and faster to order.

So yesterday three packages with my name on them finally arrived and with all these cool new kits and reagents I felt like a kid on Christmas Eve! They were all neatly packed with two styrofoam boxes and one cardboard (there was a styrofoam box inside the middle cardboard box). The styrofoam boxes had the reagents which had to be shipped cooled or frozen, so naturally they had ice packs and dry ice in addition to my stuff.

For those that don't know anything about dry ice, it's basically frozen carbon dioxide (yes, the gas!) which has an approximate temperature of -80 degrees C.
Apart from being a convenient cooling agent it can also be used for some silly things in the lab with a little help from sample tubes, a regular sink and a little imagination.
Put a pellet of dry ice in a 2 mL tube, shake it briefly and throw it to the ground and you have your very own "fire cracker" (minus the fire). The thawing pellet will evaporate into carbon dioxide gas, build up the pressure and then pop the lid on the tube.
However, chances are that you will grow bored of cleaning up your messy floors long before you run out of dry ice pellets, so before putting away the box you could pour some of it into the sink and pour some regular tap water on it. This will quickly turn your sink into a "bubbling witch's cauldron".
There certainly are potential for some good pranks here, but if anyone asks, I never said (or did) any of these things.

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.

How was it, being on national TV?

In the end I got a lot of praise for my attendance in the SVT Barnkanalen Morgonshowen kids show. Everything from a simple 'well done you!' to a friendly suggestion of a career change (to TV host).
However, funny thing is that it was more or less chance that gave me this opportunity. Because that's exactly what it was, despite "only" being a kids show. An opportunity to communicate science.

Basically an editor at Morgonshowen called a professor at my department in search of microscopes and someone who could show them, and small things in them, in their show. I've no idea why they didn't contact the the Biomolecular department, but that doesn't matter.
The professor they first contacted didn't have access to any microscopes and those research groups who did included mine and a few others. Mine just happened to be the first one to be contacted and since I'm the only swedish speaking researcher in my group that meant that I would be the only one capable of pulling it off.

Before I even knew what the fuss was all about I was reading through a brief manuscript on looking at small, everyday things in a microscope. Apart from that I was free to add my own research and expertise. Knowing that, the decision was a no-brainer and in hindsight I think it turned out even better than I had hoped.
Being a perfectionist I immediately started to put together an instrument/computer setup that would allow me to best visualize what I wanted to show, and of course, writing a simple manuscript of my own with simple facts and metaphors that would come in handy during the actual recording in their studio. During that time I also, in my mind, went through what I would say in response to different questions I would get, since it would mostly be improvisation at the time of recording.

In the end I brought two different microscopes (40x and 400x magnification), a camera that fit both microscopes, my laptop with visualization softwares and a 24 inch monitor. The microscope slides and materials were all prepared in advance and with the helpful assistance and support of my supervisor I had everything ready, including tiny beakers with phytoplankton cultures of different colors (e.g. red, green and pink), within two days. Despite these preparations there were still some improvisation happening with the microscopes on the day of recording.

The setup I used, trying it out in my lab (one microscope less).

When that day finally arrived I was really nervous. I remember that my supervisor and the public relations manager at the department accompanied me to the studio, and the drive there seemed to last forever. I had the feeling that I wanted to get to the studio that very instant and just get this thing started so I could better handle my nervousness.
The security at the SVT main building was rigid and we had to register and wait for quite some time before the editor finally showed up to greet us and let us into the studio.
My setup was already there and ready to go, since I assembled everything the night before. All I needed to do was plug in my computer. But before that happened, I met all the people involved, including of course, the host of the show for this episode, Tobbe 'Trollkarl'. Those of you who aren't swedish will probably not know who he is, but suffice to say that he has been on TV for a relatively long time, even when I was a kid. So I had a surreal moment of meet and greet with him before getting ready. The studio was fairly large and had a double setup depending on the different shows they were recording. It was a ridiculous amount of stuff, both technical and otherwise, lying around waiting to be put to use. And of course, in the middle of it all, a massive mixer table, cameras, lights microphones, you name it.

Apart from double checking my instruments there was not much preparation to be done. No make-up, no briefing, I just put my lab coat on and had a brief rundown with Tobbe about what he was going to say and do. I more or less played along and did my thing. To be honest it was a fairly simple task since Tobbe made life easy for me with his genuine interest and excitement over getting the opportunity to look at all these different things in a microscope. For example, I would guess that a lot of people have no idea that grains of regular salt is actually cube shaped.

Me and Tobbe Trollkarl in the studio

The recording was done in three segments and during the first I was really nervous, and I remember my supervisor happily saying that I should try and smile more. In time for the second segment I was getting warmed up and everything felt more comfortable. I got some pointers from the camera woman which also helped. In the end it felt really good, even though I always get the nagging feeling that there are things I could have done better, which I guess is natural.
By the time we did the third segment I didn't want it to end. I could do this for quite some time more. I had a blast.

There were no re-recordings and the session, which should have taken two hours, was done in only one hour. Everyone seemed really pleased with how it turned out and after watching the show on TV on the 27th of August I can see why, although it's quite weird seeing myself on TV. My kids were thrilled!
The week after the recording in the SVT Barnkanalen studio the editor called me again.