The 5-minute Koan

I looked up from my lab notebook to check time, and gasped.
It was already 4:55 pm and my bus was going to leave in 5 minutes! And I still had:

• one gel to pour for later tonight when I was back from dinner;
• one gel to take picture, which was still running, and had about 20 minutes on its timer;
• one transformation to be finished.

I told myself:"Ok, DON'T PANIC! Optimize your steps! Don't make any mistakes!"

-5 min left.
Took out IPTG, Ampicillin and X-Gal tubes out of the freezer and holding them in my palms to melt .
Ran to the shaker room, took out the transformation tube between my right index finger and middle finger, shut the shaker down with my left thumb while making sure other tubes in my hands didn't fall out. Shut the shaker room door with my left foot. Ran back to lab.

-4 min left.
Put IPTG, Ampicillin and X-Gal, half melted, in the ice bucket. Put the transformation tube on the rack. Add 10 ul IPTG. Add 15 ul Amp. Add 50 ul X-Gal. Ran to the 65C water bath. Took out the top agar. Took a 10 ml pipet on my way back.

-3 min left.
Add 3 ml top agar to the tube. Votex. Took out the LB plate in the 37C incubator. Pour.

-2.5 min left.
Ran to the gel room. Still had 15 min on the gel power timer. "Calm down. Don't panic. Make gel first." Made the gel. Checked the timer: still 14 min to go. "Good enough. Stop the timer." Stopped the timer. Took out the gel. "Be careful! Don't drop it! Don't make mistake!" Checked the gel under UV. "Great! Good bands! Just as expected!" Took the picture.

-1 min left.
Threw the used gel away. Took the gel tray to the sink to wash. "Great! The bus is always late a minute or two! Seems you have made i-" As I was putting the washed gel tray away, my elbow knocked down a flask on the edge of the sink. It fell into the sink, and broke.
"Damn it! "
Stared at the broken flask for about 2 seconds.
"Oh, what the hell. Nobody saw it!" Picked up the pieces and threw them into the "broken glass disposal" can. Cleaned the sink.

Ran back to lab. The top agar still hadn't solidified yet. Asked X:"Hi, could you please put this plate in the incubator in about 10 min?" She nodded.

Looked at the clock on the wall. Already 5:06 pm.

The bus should have gone by now. But maybe it was late. So I ran to the bus stop to try my luck. My usual fellow-passengers were still standing there idly under the afternoon sun, which meant the bus hadn't gone yet! Phew!

The bus came about 3 minutes later, which meant that I had no need to hurry at all. If I had known this, I probably wouldn't have broken the flask.

But if I hadn't broken the flask, maybe the bus wouldn't have been late.

Oh, the inextricable cause-and-effect relationship!