Clichés Must Be Clichés for a Reason

To me, the clichéd catchphrase, "Everyone makes mistakes," is roughly the equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.  I don't know what it is about the expression that really gets to me, but regardless, what is supposed to be an encouraging and consoling lesson about life usually turns out to be a clichéd jumble of words that I believe falls short of its goal.  In case it's unclear thus far, I typically shy away from clichés, but this week, I can honestly say I have learned to accept that this lesson has become a universal expression for a reason, equalizing both kindergarteners bringing home failed spelling tests and biochemists dedicated to finding the cure for cancer.

We're all human (yes, even the biochemists).  This seemingly obvious fact made it a bit easier to walk into L'Institut Curie Monday morning and dive headfirst into the world of Structural Motility, knowing that even when the standards and expectations are set as high as they are at this world-renowned research lab, nobody can truly achieve perfection.  I was assigned to shadow a scientist named Wika, who explained each step of the week-long processes of protein production and purification as we went along.  My mind was reeling after the first day, having been introduced into an underworld whose existence I hadn't previously acknowledged.  Frankly, it was overwhelming.  But still, I showed up each morning with a smile on my face and my mind open (which means more than it may read; I will admit, I am not often pleasant in the hours prior to noon), eager to learn and to achieve our goal of consolidating our 2 liters of E. Coli culture into only 25 milligrams of our protein, YSP-GluR1, over the course of 5 days (I can assure you that sounds exponentially simpler than it truly is).

I was determined to gain familiarity with words, concepts, and processes that might as well have been in a foreign language: Histidine, sonification, Nanodrop, elution, lysis, wash buffer, etc.  Finally, by day 5, I was fully immersed in my internship and much more confident in my place in the lab, thanks to Wika's knowledge and patience, as well as the fact that, to go with yet another cliché, practice makes perfect.  But as I soon learned, the ideal of perfection is a bit elusive.

Unfortunately, due to one small memory lapse of an otherwise brilliant scientist, the 5 milliliters of protein that we injected into a 120 milliliter column meant for gel filtration ended up in the "trash flask" instead of the 45 desired fractioning tubes.  In short, our week's work was down the drain (pun shamelessly intended).  I felt my stomach drop, nervous to hear Wika's reaction to someone's accidental interference with our experiment. Deliberate or not, I would have been mad if it were me.  Because of this, I was surprised to hear what came next: "Ce n'est pas grave. Il arrive" (rough translation: "It's not a big deal. 
It happens").


I initially saw this mishap as a week wasted, our product unobtainable, and an unavoidable guilty conscience in this nameless scientist.  Something that had seemed so significant and unfortunate to me was instantly boiled down to a small, innocent human error and quickly, and admirably, moved past.  Over the course of this week, I may have learned about GSTraps and how to crystallize and analyze protein structures, but I have also learned that we really never stop learning.  Scientists who have been working on similar projects in that same lab for over two years still make mistakes here and there, but with the practice and experience that comes with each experiment, they are able to tweak this and alter that, making next time around even more successful.  Experiments, by definition, are supposed to prove a hypothesis or support a known fact, but I have come to believe that it is not the end result that matters so much as the understanding one obtains throughout the process, be it technical, like how myosin V is still a total mystery, or more internal - that everyone errs from time to time; that mistakes subsequently bring with them some of the best lessons; and that keeping things in perspective is more often than not the most important part of all (how are those for clichés?).
   
Yours until the protein is purified (aka Friday, fingers crossed),
Ali