This incident I am sharing is one of the most funniest things happened in my lab. As a cell biologist, we carry out Western Blotting technique almost daily. In our lab, we use this technique to check the expression level of proteins in different cancer cell lines upon gene knockout or treatment with drugs. Ahh..well still trying to understand and to find out which gene or protein is responsible for causing Colon cancer among Indian population.
So before I proceed let me just tell you here….for those who are from different background….we do gene knockout , it means we block the function of our interested gene so that it could not be produced by the cell. The cells will show different phenotype in the absence of that gene product. Therefore, we can determine the function of the gene.
Now coming back to the incident, so my colleague was preparing reagents for her Western Blot experiments. To do so we require Milk protein to block the background noise which might interfere with our results. So my colleague was searching for Milk powder (its same milk powder we use for our COFFEE). My friend found the new packet of it, and the moment she opened ….she was like,’’WOW, WHAT A SMELL…FEEL LIKE EATING NOW ITSELF, THE EXPERIMENT CAN WAIT A LITTLE LONGER,”. And that person started eating the powder ( I DIDN’T EXPECT THAT TO HAPPEN).
And the BAD FORTUNE happened. Our boss just entered the lab when my friends mouth was full of milk powder. Oh Lord, just imagine that situation. I couldn't say anything that time. Boss asked, “WHAT ARE YOU EATING THAT TO IN THE LAB?”. My friend got scared and went into trance state and replied, “nothing” (by nodding the face). Boss got SOOOOO angry, and shouted to open the mouth (in my mind kids rhyme started playing…Jhonny jhonny yes papa..eating sugar no papa….open your mouth…HA HA HA). My friend couldn’t dare to open. Boss said…...your face is covered with Milk powder and you dare to lie. My Boss first dialogue, “ DO YOU EVEN KNOW HOW COSTLY IS THIS MILK POWDER?...IF YOU ARE HUNGRY GO TO MY CABIN AND DRINK MILK FROM THE CARTON”.
I actually felt like laughing….its always about the lab funds….I was wondering even to buy milk powder…we have to think twice. What RESEARCH LIFE we have in India. Anyways from that day onwards my friend decided not to drink water also in the lab thinking that what if Boss thinks that now Deionised water is also missing because someone drank……HA HA HA.
My colleague has been named as “MILK THIEF” now.
Hope it was fun reading this.
Love Ruby
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