Like any other workplace things go wrong in the laboratory, whether conducted by the laboratory assistant, a new graduate or an experienced scientist. Some of these incidents and accidents are quite amusing. A recent spate of activity on the news feed site Reddit has collected the most amusing. The page has been set up by The Scientist, and several of the best ‘lab gaffs’ have been featured by the popular science website.
Among the best picks from Digital Journal’s survey of the Reddit news feed are:
“Had a small, tabletop centrifuge that had it’s inner lid pop out when it was spinning. It bounced around inside by the rotor and got chopped to a million bits. It was a cheapo centrifuge, which was probably good because the parts were plastic and not terribly dangerous/heavy. But bad because the outer lid popped open, too, sending those bits of plastic in all directions.
I jumped up out of hiding to slam the cover down to prevent more projectiles. This was stupid, because the damn thing decided to start spinning back up now that it’s lid was shut again. I think I yanked the cord from the outlet.”
Other highlights include a warning about bacterial pathogen risks. Here user chickenpotpiee wrote:
“a girl in my lab forgot to turn the blower on in the hood and inhaled a small amount of an e. coli toxin we were supposed to put in solution. didn’t feel well, went to the ER, got pneumonia, then got an intestinal infection. her mom had to fly to the east cost from california to take care of her when she couldn’t leave her apartment for two weeks. it’s a month later and she still hasn’t fully recovered.”
With the subject of health and safety, NorthernSparrow recounts:
“Grad student left a hot plate on, burned down his/her advisors’ lab, entire floor of the building destroyed by smoke and water damage. Nobody killed but the advisor’s rare collection of butterfly wings went up in. smoke – he’d been studying evolution of butterflies and had to abandon that. Took about a year to rebuild everything and get back on track.
That was 20 years ago and I still have a big sign in the lab where people will see it when they leave: “IS THE HOTPLATE OFF?”
edit: forgot to mention severe water damage in the entire rest of the building. The affected lab was on the top floor so the whole department was pretty much flooded. We were all shut down for a while. I ended up staying in grad school another year because of all the delays getting the labs up and running again.”
Interacting with the public can also be a problem. kvastion, who is a museum curator remembers:
“Part of my job is responding to calls, part is routine chores. One day I’m refilling a tank (routine) that should hold roughly 5 cubic meters of water, at 25cm height. It takes about 4 minutes to refill one centimeter, the tank overflows at 40cm, the current level was pretty low at 19cm. I had some time, so I figured I’d pop out of the room to replace a light bulb. As I’m fetching the bulb a coworker asks me if I could look into where the “Off Limits!” signs are, and since I knew where they where I figured I’d just ask her where she wanted them placed, and while placing them… You know where this is heading. Two hours later, I remembered I’d left the valve open. Water everywhere.
I’ve got that sign burned into my brain, not just for that routine task, for most tasks like it. Last time I responded to it was today, I’d refilled the tank, and as I was leaving I got uncertain. Not much, just a tiny tiny bit about the valve. So I went back and checked.”
As a final pick, user blackday44 comes up with a list of lab howlers:
“Mouth pipetting by experienced techs- organic solvents of all things. We had the proper equipment, they were just too lazy to get it.
There was a communication issue, and someone threw out about $20,000 worth of samples.
Many years before my time, it was accepted practice to heat your lunch in the GC oven. Or to even make french toast. Guess the ovens were so precise temperature-wise it made awesome food.”
If these stories are to your liking, many more can be found on Reddit.
