I've been lurking around LabSpaces, but not posting of late.  While I revived my personal blog, I just haven't had the motivation -- or material -- to write about anything science-based lately.  Things are not progressing well, I feel like I can't share the problems because I'm not pseudonymous enough, and thinking about real science during my free time is just too painful right now.

But, a theme post on biggest lab mistake?  That I can do!

My biggest mistake can be neatly summed up into one sentence: You cannot precipitate out proteins with ammonium persulfate.

No, that would require ammonium sulfate.  Those three little letters make a really, really big difference.  Moral of this story: when you have an awful migraine and are vomiting left and right, either go home and go to bed, or make someone else double check the chemical you grab off the shelf.

Oops.  Three weeks of protein purification down the drain.