Data mining

Somewhere in my last post, I expressed relief towards the ending of the mammoth experimentation and how less taxing the data analysis seemed in comparison to the phrenetic data acquisition.


I take back all my words.


Data mining and analysis (for a mammoth experiment) is one hell of a b**ch. Here's an anecdote of the past 2-data-mining weeks to illustrate why.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Day 1

Energetic faces. Rolled up sleeves.

Me : Yosh!! Let's count plates!
SanSan : Remember ya - red colonies, big and small green colonies, and tiny blue colonies. I've printed the record sheet here.
MH : (dons face mask) Okay. I'll count the 24h plates.
Me : I'll count the 48h plates.
P : I'm still counting the 12h plates.
R : (already marker pen in hand)
Me : 'kay, let's count!

4 hours later....

LB : Do you all want to go for lunch?
MH, R, Me : (looks up, eyes glazed)
Me : ...fifty-six, fifty-seven....
LB : I can help you pack :)
MH : I'll go for lunch.
Me : ...fifty-nine, sixty. One hundred sixty. (scribbles number on plate) I'm sooo going for lunch. I'm seeing stars already.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 2

Walks into lab and puts on lab coat reluctantly.

SanSan : Someone should start recording the numbers on the log sheet.
Me : I'm still counting 48h plates.
MH : I'll do it.
SanSan : R can help read the numbers.
R : Okay.

30 mins later....

Me : The small green and tiny blue colonies look the same. Which is strain 3 and which is strain 4?
MH : hmmm....
R : Yea, it's quite difficult to differentiate. Sometimes I just count all small ones as strain 3...
MH : Strain 4 has a little white peak. Strain 3 is slightly mucoidal.
Me : (stashes out an agar plate) So this is strain 4?
MH : (peers at agar plate) Hmm.... yea, I think this is strain 4, that is strain 3.
Me : Does everyone knows?
R : ..... count again?
Me : ..........................
MH : (runs around lab educating which is 3 and which is 4)

2 hours later....

Me : I can't count anymore. My eyes are hurting!
MH : (eyes glazed) Umm.
Me : I'll go plot fluorometre graphs.

5 hours later....

MH : Red - 3. Big - 35. Strain4 - 13. Next dilution, red - 7. Big - 28. Strain 4 - 12....
R : (scribbles furiously)
Me : Excuse me, which hour are you at?
MH : 12h.
Me : ...then 24h and 48h..?
MH : (eyes glazed) Not done.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 3

In office. Looks at plates in the lab. Turns away and plops into chair.

Me : (peers over at SanSan) Still many plates to count?
SanSan : ... and record. Some of the strains 3 and 4 are not distinguished... have to count again. And some numbers are funny. Need to count.... again...?
Me : (moans)

3 hours later....

Hunched over the lab bench with the largest trolley beside the bench, FULL of stinky agar plates and gross bacteria.

MH : .... Red - 15. Big - 166. Strain 4 - need to count.
Me : (looks up, eyes glassy, and brow furrowed) Eeehhh... but it's TNTC (too numerous to count)
MH : Yea, but the following dilution is under countable range, so we need to count these.
Me : (looks at the tiny colonies despairingly and whines) But they are so tiny and.... so many :'(
MH : ...twelve, thirteen, fourteen,....

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 4

Bleary eyes into the office.

Me : Today no more plates to count, right?
SanSan : We will need to incubate the acid agar plates longer because strain 2 is growing very slow.
Me : ....

1 hour later....

Shal : How's the fluorometre results coming?
Me : Still plotting.
Shal : Okay. The colony counts?
SanSan : Still recording. And plotting.
Shal : Okay.

5 hours later....

Shal : Don't you think we should start discussing the results already?
SanSan : (very sien look) I still have a lot to plot.
Me : (eyes on computer, plotting) Umm.
Shal : Let's discuss tomorrow after lunch?
SanSan : Okay.
Me : (still staring at screen) Umm.

3 hours later....

MH : You all want to eat dinner?
Shal : Yea.
Me : (finally lifts face from the computer) Arghh!! How can it not work??!! I need a break from plotting!!!

~~~*~*~*~~~~

Day 5

Morning. Everyone at computer in the office. Agar plates sitting at all the benches and stinking up the lab.

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

4 hours later....

LB : Are you all going for lunch?
SanSan : Can help us pack?
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

2 hours later....

Shal : So are we discussing?
SanSan : I still have a lot of graphs to plot. And the numbers are weird! We need someone to re-check the plates.
MH : I'll do it.
Me : We need to take out plates from incubator also right? They are the size of a 10-cent coin now.
MH : Umm. Yea.
Me : Yucks. It smells as disgusting as it looks.

7 hours later....

Shal : So are we discussing?
SanSan : There's still a lot to plot...
Shal : Yea, but....
Me : (brain in screensaver mode) I cannot concentrate already.
Shal : We do it next week, in the morning?
Me : Yes please.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 8

Morning. In office. Agar plates unmoved, stench in lab is getting unbearable.

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

3 hours later....

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

2 hours later....

Shal : We still haven't discuss!!!
Glazed eyes looked up. And back down on computer screen.
Shal : .....

2 hours later....

Shal : Let's just stop plotting first and discuss.
R : Okay.
Me : Okay.
SanSan : You all go ahead. I need to finish this plot first. And guess what? We have missing plates.
Shal : ... how?!!
SanSan : Beats me. Can't find them.

6 hours later....

MH : We've been discussing 6 hours in a row.
SanSan : (points at me) She's in screensaver mode already.
Me : I'm not registering anymore. Very tired.
R : Continue tomorrow?
All : Yea.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 9

Morning. In office. Plates still stinking lab.

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

4 hours later....

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

3 hours later....

Extensive debate on contamination which lasted almost 4 hours.
Back to plotting.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 10

Morning. In office. Potted plant looking sickly. Must be the stench in the lab.

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : Are we discussing?
SanSan : Some of you can go ahead with the discussion....
Shal : Okay, let's.

4 hours later....

Plotting and discussion continues.

4 hours later....

Plotting and discussion continues.

4 hours later....

Plotting and discussion continues.

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 11

Morning. P's unhappy.

P : The smell of the lab is awful. Can't you throw the plates yet?
Me : I'll go. (dons face mask and discards all plates in hazard bag) Bleah... stinks so bad.

1 hour later....

Me : The lab's all clean! I enthanol-ed all the benches and the lab!
P : And you are still standing?!
Me : Yea... still sober from all the alcohol! hehe... (looks around in office)
SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

6 hours later....

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

~~~*~*~*~~~

Day 12

Morning. In office.

SanSan : (plotting graphs)
Me : (plotting graphs)
Shal : (plotting graphs)
MH : (plotting graphs)
R : (plotting graphs)

3 hours later....

Plotting and discussion continues.

4 hours later....

Plotting and discussion continues.

2 hours later....

Me : I'll never want to do this scale of data mining ever again T_T
Shal : I know what you mean.
SanSan : I want to do experiments! Not plotting graphs T_T

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~***~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The dialogue's not exactly word-for-word, but you get the idea.

～みはる～