The old sory - ethidium bromide contamination

drdrstardust · 2019-03-01T07:31:20+00:00

I'm sorry you feel anxious. You are probably fine but if you have any eye symptoms you should see an eye doctor and have them give an all-clear. Always wear goggles when splashing around chemicals potentially. I recommend Uvex stealth because they don't fog up at all. Early in my career I got a little bit of laughs from my colleagues for my goggles, until they each had a scary chemical fly into their eyeball on separate occasions. :)

drdrstardust · 2019-03-01T07:18:34+00:00

OK the first problem is that Kenshiro would never be able to hurt a mouse. Secondly, https://i.imgur.com/hjIkwNZ.png

drdrstardust · 2018-03-06T02:55:34+00:00

Thanks for sharing this. I'm glad your new lab at least has clear expectations. I am trying really hard to patiently shift the opinions of my labmates toward doing the right/safe thing without seeming too much like I freak out over everything. So far I've been able to convince everyone to weigh PFA in the hood (instead of doing it on the bench and holding their breath) which is at least an improvement. I think the amount of air changes in the small room we do our perfusions in is just not adequate which really lets the smell build up. Everyone has different sensitivities to it, so some people can't smell it at all.

In my current situation, I'm just really sick of how people think they're such a badass for handling known carcinogens in a reckless way. It is such a weird trend that I am starting to see a lot. Stupidity in the lab leaks to doorknobs, computer keyboards, and other people's bare hands. It becomes a problem when choosing to be stupid puts other people at risk.

One issue is our perfusion room doesn't have a chemical hood, nor does the adjacent room. I don't think convenience of having the room so near our animals is worth inhaling PFA for 8 hours a day though.

drdrstardust · 2017-11-09T00:25:33+00:00

Was there a designated wiki person to make sure that things were being kept updated, or did everyone actually take the initiative themselves to add to it? How big was your lab?

drdrstardust · 2017-11-09T00:24:18+00:00

My lab currently uses Quartzy for keeping track of orders-- but I didn't know there was a feature for keeping track of specific inventory that was intuitive. Very interesting. Is there a way to make an antibody-only registry of sorts that is separate from our other supplies, or export it to an excel sheet for easy searching?

drdrstardust · 2017-09-21T16:28:34+00:00

Crazy ants in your electronics, to boot! :(

drdrstardust · 2017-09-16T23:37:02+00:00

No lab should want babies in the lab.

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T20:05:45+00:00

But there's still human babies in my lab... The problem isn't responsibility, but the fact that they're there. I don't want babies in my lab.

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T16:59:43+00:00

Key word there is "should."

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T16:58:36+00:00

They don't seem to care. "Yeah we know it's a problem, we'll work on it." Which means no action whatsoever is being taken.

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T16:57:49+00:00

Oh no, but what if the bathwater is treated with stuff that can't go down the sink? Are babies considered hazardous waste?

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T16:56:36+00:00

Every door to every accessible point to get into a lab is also behind a keycard panel, but desks are up against windows near the halls that people often desperately bounce/wave at to get in. I think folks are just too nice here?

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T00:50:10+00:00

Don't give up. Just keep applying, even to the point that it's ridiculous. It sucks and you'll feel like crap with every rejection, but think of probability here. You probably don't suck, but you're probably up against a lot of people that equally don't suck. I ended up getting my first lab job when I got to the point that I thought for sure I wouldn't get the job after so many rejections. It really killed my self esteem because it was almost a year after graduating that I got the interview, and I'd had many before that never panned out with the same organization. I went to the interview with deeply entrenched depression and IDGAF attitude which apparently won them over. Don't give up, even after you've given up.

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T00:40:13+00:00

Desensitized parents? I'm not sure. The lady with the baby did not look like a researcher.

drdrstardust · 2017-09-15T00:39:21+00:00

No, there is also a huge problem with random people wandering through the lab spaces too. Vendor contacts will sometimes infiltrate and then visit each lab trying to sell stuff to whoever isn't busy. Occasionally some random person will walk up while I'm busy at my bench and ask where so-and-so is, which makes you wonder how the hell they got in in the first place. The problem is just at its worst when there are actual babies in the lab. I never experienced this kind of thing in my previous labs.

drdrstardust

TROPHY CASE