Another year is logged in this great Kirby Lab tradition. This year, we have our first tie and our first repeat winner.
Postbac India Carter ties with grad student Nidhi Devasthali. Nidhi is our first ever double winner. She was also our champ last year.
They each got bragging rights and a cool brain light as their winnings. Read about their mistakes below then get out there and do some science so you make your own excellent mistakes!
India: Imaging with the slides wrong-side up and being unable to figure out why they were so blurry when at 20x but were ok at 10x. She imaged for 45min before getting Bryon, who
showed her the problem.
Nidhi: In trying to combine 2 antibodies, one of which required 37 deg incubation (calbindin) and one of which did not (cfos), Nidhi incubated tissue in both primary antibodies at 37 degrees. She also did the secondary antibody step in PBS instead of blocking solution. The stain looked weird but she counted all 17 animals anyways, only to realize this was a mistake when her results did not make sense.