The week of suck.
I should have known better than to post my last entry, because the last week was just terrible (at least as far as work).
On Monday, my muscle-tendon prep, which I thought was *finally* working, failed. I'm pretty sure I know why, and have an idea of how to fix it, but it was immensely frustrating for it to fail just when I thought I had it working.
On Tuesday, the actual experiment (a rat muscle prep for a side-project) worked fine, but I found out that I can't order any small toads because the only commercially available species is the *one* we don't have on our approved species list. Not a huge problem, but annoying. Anyhow, the amendment is submitted, so hopefully I can order soon.
On Wednesday, my custom force-plate malfunctioned, and I had to spend about 3 hours sorting it out, but it's mostly fixed now.
On Thursday, I found out that my X-ray video from my second chapter was unusable due to a combination of imaging properties and the tiny, poorly calcified bones. This, unfortunately, is much more difficult to fix - I either need to figure out a way of making Cuban tree frogs work for this project, or use a different species.
Friday I did some quick image testing in the Xray facility, which helped a bit - there is a set of imaging parameters that work, but reduce the time I have to get the frog to jump from 4 seconds to 2 seconds, and I definitely need to do surgery to implant a bead.
But, that's how science is - this coming week, I'll try to fix both issues while waiting for the IACUC committee to approve a few new species. I've still got two years to go, but I am worried about getting enough preliminary results for the abstract deadline of my favorite conference (due Sept. 9th). Fingers crossed, something will work by then, and I have a few backup plans.
On Monday, my muscle-tendon prep, which I thought was *finally* working, failed. I'm pretty sure I know why, and have an idea of how to fix it, but it was immensely frustrating for it to fail just when I thought I had it working.
On Tuesday, the actual experiment (a rat muscle prep for a side-project) worked fine, but I found out that I can't order any small toads because the only commercially available species is the *one* we don't have on our approved species list. Not a huge problem, but annoying. Anyhow, the amendment is submitted, so hopefully I can order soon.
On Wednesday, my custom force-plate malfunctioned, and I had to spend about 3 hours sorting it out, but it's mostly fixed now.
On Thursday, I found out that my X-ray video from my second chapter was unusable due to a combination of imaging properties and the tiny, poorly calcified bones. This, unfortunately, is much more difficult to fix - I either need to figure out a way of making Cuban tree frogs work for this project, or use a different species.
Friday I did some quick image testing in the Xray facility, which helped a bit - there is a set of imaging parameters that work, but reduce the time I have to get the frog to jump from 4 seconds to 2 seconds, and I definitely need to do surgery to implant a bead.
But, that's how science is - this coming week, I'll try to fix both issues while waiting for the IACUC committee to approve a few new species. I've still got two years to go, but I am worried about getting enough preliminary results for the abstract deadline of my favorite conference (due Sept. 9th). Fingers crossed, something will work by then, and I have a few backup plans.