chemistry sometimes eludes me
i'll try to make this the least nerdy and scientific that i can. i got to the last step of my protein isolation protocol yesterday, and it was basically waiting for acetone to evaporate away (which only takes about 20 minutes) and then putting some sample loading buffer on it to make it ready for use. so after about an hour i notice that all the liquid hadn't evaporated, so i decided to call it a night, and just go home, let it evaporate over night, and come back to it in the morning. i come back in the morning, and the stuff still isn't gone. i figure, well, it probably had some water in it or something (which takes much longer than acetone to evaporate), so i'll just wash it some more with acetone, and be done with it. so i wash it again, let it dry, only to come back later and see that it's dried out of 1 tube and not the other. oh well, i figure, the tube that hadn't dried was for regular loading buffer, which has a lot of water in it anyway, so what the heck, it won't really hurt anything if there's an extra drop or 2 of water. so i put in the loading buffer (which is a very pretty indigo color), and i notice 2 things: 1) the buffer at the bottom of the tube is turning yellowy-green, and 2) my nose tingles. at which point i think, *unholy word* chlorine gas! so i get to the hood (which is conveniently right behind me), and kinda watch for smoke to come out of the tube, before i decide to keep mixing my stuff to see what happens. now i know you're thinking, why in the world would you think there's chlorine gas in your tube? so what my brain had failed to recall was that the only thing that had water in it that i added to my mix were different acids, one of them being hydrochloric acid, which does make chlorine gas. oops. well.. the point now is, i've learned that if there's residual acid in your acid-extracted histones, not all the liquid evaporates after the acetone washes. that and bromophenol blue turns yellow at pH 3.
on a completely different note. i just want to say, that i think the police had a party at my apartment complex... and that's why there were three police cars parked outside of my building when i got home tonight. they were at the party... =\
on a completely different note. i just want to say, that i think the police had a party at my apartment complex... and that's why there were three police cars parked outside of my building when i got home tonight. they were at the party... =\