I learned a valuable lesson in the past month. I've been banging away at my postdoctoral project now for almost a year. About six months of that I've spent trouble shooting one very simple (and what should be routine) assay. I've wasted a lot of time doing so, but it had to be done. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going wrong. So, one-by-one I began replacing reagents and changing conditions. I had people show me how to do the experiment, watch me perform the experiment, give suggestions and repeat. Nothing worked.Finally, I remembered that one of the reagents that I had been using was given to me by a coworker. He had ordered extra bottle and thought I might need some. I should say at this point that this individual is a very helpful person. He has been an invaluable resource and a good friend and I have no reason to think that he would ever knowingly cause trouble for me or anyone else. But... as soon as I replaced that one gift everything started working.
The lesson, as I see it, is that in science (maybe true for other fields as well) it's just not worth your time to trust anyone else unless you must. Order your own reagents, do the experiments yourself, and if you must take a gift then make sure it is what they say it is. Most people have good intentions and 9 times out of 10 you will be fine. But, that one time can cost you 6 months or more. Your time is worth too much.
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