Hi all

I'm having a bit of a lull with experiments, in that I feel I haven't done anything productive since October. I've had some issues with the flow cytometer (we have a relatively old one, and thus plays up quite frequently because of this, to the point it had a massive crash in October, and combined with a new annexin stain a new post doc ordered, all my apoptosis assays haven't been right since), and with picking up STAT1 on a western blot, so a lot of the experiments and data I need to collect have been put on hold. Combine with my secondary supervisor going on maternity leave, I've been given a tertiary advisor (who is really nice and approachable) but he, like my primary, is very busy and not been in the lab for a while. The new postdoc has also volunteered to help, which in one sense I am grateful for as she is more hands on lab wise, but I think on the work front we clash a bit as I do things quite differently to how she would do it, and sometimes it feels she's trying to help with stuff I didn't ask for help on, and I end up feeling a bit unnecessarily micromanaged when I don't need it, and she's trying to help so it reflects well on her but not necessarily for my benefit. I fully appreciate I'm maybe being a bit defensive as I'm not being as productive as I'd like and that because my secondary supervisor isn't available, also feeling a bit lost and deflated as she was really supportive last year.

Anyone have any tips for 'second year blues'?