So this is a companion piece to my article last week about how to survive a lab. This is how to survive a lab whilst making sure that you do not upset anyone or ruffle any feathers. Generally speaking, unless you are a repeatedly failing experiment, it takes a lot to anger a scientist. Scientists get angry at cells and proteins a lot more than they get angry at actual human beings. But there are a few things that will definitely raise the blood pressure and heart rate of your fellow co-workers and cause them to gain a few levels on the 'How close I am to losing my actual sh*t' scale.
1.Not turning up to your bookings.
Or turning up late for that matter. A lot of equipment and resources in the lab have to be booked in advance - for example ,the cell culture hoods, cryostats and anything attached to a computer. There will come occasions in the lab where everyone is frantically trying to finish their experiments in time for publications or grant proposals and no one will be happy when a piece of equipment they couldn't use as it had already been booked stands empty for an hour. That's an hour that another scientist could have used. If for whatever reason you are going to be late, let people know how late you are going to be. If you are going to be more than 20 minutes late, then someone may be able to quickly use it for their work. Or you can arrange to swap slots with someone else so no one loses out on time.
2.Using the expensive stuff when you could have used a cheaper alternative.
Many chemicals come into two forms- the generic stuff and the pure, sterile grade stuff. The sterile stuff is eye-wateringly expensive! It is only there to be used for experiments that have to be 100% uncontaminated - the kind of experiments that use a fume hood and you cannot risk any kind of microorganisms or impurities getting in there. If your experiment does not require purity or sterility, use the generic stuff! If you are not sure which one you should be using, a good clue is looking at the sizes of the bottles in the lab. The sterile grade is usually the smallest. If your experiment requires a large amount of the chemical, odds are that you are not using the sterile one. If your experiment needs you to be a fume hood for most of the experiment, you may need to use the sterile one.
3.Not cleaning up after yourself.
Okay, you can do what you want to your lab bench-unless a funder or someone important tours the lab. If your lab bench looks like a earthquake, followed by a tornado and then a tidal wave has just hit it, that's your business. But if someone who may be giving the lab funding or someone who the seniors want to impress tours the lab, you will most likely be asked to make your area look vaguely presentable. Still, most of the time, you can do what you want with your personal bench. Communal areas and communal resources however are totally different, and they must ALWAYS be left exactly as you found it. Fume hoods for one are used constantly one after the one all day and not cleaning it up properly opens up experiment done in it to the risk of contamination, ruining days and weeks of hard work. Ruined experiments aside, its just plain damn rude not to clean up after yourself. Yes, labs often have cleaners but you don't need to make their lives and jobs more difficult. Cleaners are often not allowed to touch certain things in labs if there's a risk to their safety. In every research lab I've worked in, it's always the balance that is left in a right state and covered in strange unknown powders or crystals. There always seems to be at least one scientist who thinks keeping the balance clean is beneath them. Point is, if the chemical can't be identified, it becomes difficult to clean it as no one knows if the chemical is toxic or harmless. Anyway, keep your ego in check, stop being lazy and clean up your own damn mess.
4.Not letting anyone know that the lab is running out of X Y and Z.
Labs usually have at least one or two people responsible for ordering all the chemicals, powders and assorted consumables that the entire lab needs. If they aren't running their own experiments, they might do a stock check but its not something that should be relied on. In busy times, labs can get though entire bottles of something or another before a stock can be done. Letting supplies run out because you didn't tell anyone that you finished the last bottle or container is never okay. General rule of thumb to follow is that if there is more than one bottle of a chemical, let someone know if you have finished one of them or if there is only one bottle, let someone know if that bottle is only half full. If you don't know who is responsible for ordering, find out! That's a good thing to ask when you are first brought into the lab. Otherwise, ask anyone in the lab.
5.Being late for an arranged meeting.
Okay there is an exception to this- but it relies on you actually emailing or texting someone going to the meeting and apologetically explaining that your experiment has run late, something has gone wrong, you are sorting it out now and you will be at the meeting as soon as you possibly can. Then, it is unlikely that anyone will be that pissed or annoyed. Of course, if you start doing that every time you have a meeting, then there will certainty be a bit of anger and you probably have to work on your scheduling of experiments and time management. But in every other situation, turn up early-especially if this meeting is for your personal benefit. Most people in this meeting will be helpful and civil enough if not friendly- but they have their own things and experiments to do, and they want to get back to it as soon as they can. Many people in this meeting have probably arranged their experiments so that this meeting is taking place whilst their cells are having their required 1-hour incubation time. Just remember that your time is not any more important than anyone else's, and if you are late without a communicated reason, it is often seen as you having an ego. You do not want anyone thinking that you have an ego.
6.Taking pipettes or pens off someone else's bench- unless you have previously been told that you are allowed to do so, and then not returning them.
Most scientists have a favourite pen. Or several favourite pens. Some live in their lab-coat, other pens remain on the bench, in an exact, accessible spot. If that pen is gone when they get back, it is very possible that all hell will break out. The same thing goes with pipettes. And chairs. Actually, the same thing could go for a lot of things on someone's bench. I remember I had a rather unhealthy emotional attachment for a certain ice box. It was the perfect size! I could carry it with one hand or with two, I could put all my tubes or cell plates in it, it didn't need that much ice to fill up, and it had a lid! I was furious when I came into the lab after a week to find it was gone. I was even more furious when I realised I would have to waste time stomping around the lab trying to find another icebox that I could borrow/ acquire before starting my very lengthy experiment. Having said that ,scientists do tend to be a generous lot and will happily let you BORROW something of their bench provided it is returned as soon as it is no longer required. It may get to a point where a scientist just says 'look, if I'm not there, just take it and return it once you're done'. MAY get to a point. And may only be certain items. For example, I didn't mind someone borrowing my pen or potentially my icebox (in certain circumstances) but there was no way anyone was going near my very expensive, specially designed to be comfortable for left handers, electronic pipettes.
8.Not labelling anything and putting it in the fridge/freezer.
If you leave something on your bench unlabelled, you do you. Have fun playing Russian Roulette with l chemicals when you can't remember which clear liquid is the acid and which is the water. But if you put any tube without, at the very least, your initials on it, into the communal fridge or freezer, you will be causing some anger. And because no one can work out who is responsible for the unlabelled tube, some angry group emails will probably be sent out, causing even more rage. These fridges and freezers get incredibly busy and crowded and every key months or so, the required clear out/ de-icing will have to be carried out. Anything that is no longer necessary to anyone's experiment or belonged to someone who has now left will be thrown away. But unlabelled things are difficult to throw away. You don't know if it belongs to someone who still needs it, and because the person who may still want to use it probably forgets what it looks like, it just stays there in the fridge. Repeat this process a couple of times and then you have unnecessary clutter in an overcrowded fridge-freezer. I have worked in labs before where unlabelled tubes just get thrown out as soon as they are seen. May stop the clutter but does increase the tension and sulking in a lab. Just avoid the whole drama and label everything.
The thing I find funny about this list is that most of these rules just seem to be common sense. Don't be late, communicate, be tidy and don't take things without permission. Still, there will always be at least one scientist in any research facility who is absolutely brilliant in their research and the leading expert in their field - but they have no common sense to the extent that you worry about how they even make to the lab without being hit by a bus. If you can't identify that person, odds are... it might be you. You will make a great scientist! But you will be even greater if you can avoid pissing off everyone!
