A dramatic day

Why did the German word for six (sechs) pronounced so similar to "sex" that I made myself looking so funny today. The lab technician approached me and asked me whether I had 6 spaces in the centrifuge. I answered, "sechs?...natuerlich" (six?...sure). Then everybody in the room started laughing. I didn't realize what was going on until she said to me in German, still laughing uncontrollably, "sorry Po-Han, I'm too old for you."

My PhD mentor, Gernot, is indeed a funny character. I've never seen a person who treasures needless things so much like him. Today Lena finally told him to throw away his garbage in the fridge. After he moved all the useless tubes out of the fridge, he took another box and put them in there, and then put the box back into the fridge. I asked him, "are we going to store them again?...I thought they can be thrown away." He answered me while still putting all those tubes inside the box, "well...we can store them for another few days...and then we can throw them away." At this point I was speechless but laugh. What's the difference a few days can make from those old tubes? New pure proteins? I don't think so.

I had 54 mg of pure proteins at around noon time. I told Gernot maybe we should use another method to concentrate these proteins because, according to previous experiences, these proteins are not stable with the old handling procedure. Then he said, "well...we can still try the old one...it's faster. If it doesn't work...then we can try the new one." At 7 o'clock, after realizing that only 15 mg has left from the original 54 mg, he told me, "wow...it's really a total destructive process." Yes, thank you Gernot, you finally realized that. I didn't know whether I should laugh or cry.

So, we spent the next two hours trying the new way, and that's why I came back today at 9:30pm. And thanks to Thomas, the postdoc in the lab, who bought a huge bag of delicious chocolate. While I was bored during those two hours, Gernot and I ate so many chocolates that I fear I must be so heavy now. Damn Thomas, why did you bring such an luring, horrible thing to the lab?