In plenty of time for April Fools Day, may I present a thread on good practical jokes to play in labs?
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\nDry ice exploding out of snap-cap tubes is old hat. The snatching away of our secondary school chemistry teacher’s chalk with invisible cotton threads as she reached for it was fun, but generic and juvenile. I want to hear about the most creative and elaborate (OK, and safe) tricks you’ve ever seen played in a lab environment.<\/p>\n
In plenty of time for April Fools Day, may I present a thread on good practical jokes to play in labs? . Dry ice exploding out of snap-cap tubes is old hat. The snatching away of our secondary school chemistry … Continue reading
\nThe best one I’ve ever seen was in my PhD lab. We had a new student, and the senior technician was showing him how to do a Western blot. This technician was extremely proficient and respected, but was one of those people who insisted that everyone in the lab had to follow her protocols exactly. Deviation was sure to result in the failing of your degree, rejection of your grant applications and retraction of your papers.
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\nIn this particular case, the technician was repeatedly telling the student that he had to be sure to follow her recipe precisely. Add all the right ingredients, in the right amounts and order, or the gel WILL NOT SET. And then you’ll fail your PhD and have to leave Glasgow in shame. So add ALL THE INGREDIENTS. In the EXACT AMOUNTS I’VE WRITTEN DOWN. Or the gel WILL NOT SET.
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\nYou get the picture.
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\nAfter she’d poured the gel and taken the student off to learn how to do tissue culture PROPERLY, the other technician in the lab hid her gel rig in his cupboard and replaced it with an identical rig filled with water.
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\nThe technician and student returned an hour later, the student looking haggard. She informed him that when you’ve set up a gel according to her EXACT RECIPE, with ALL THE RIGHT INGREDIENTS, it will set properly and you’ll be able to tip it upside down…
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\nWater all over the floor.
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\nTo her everlasting credit, after her initial stunned silence while the rest of us howled with laughter and gasped for air, we showed her the real gel rig, which had set perfectly in the cupboard, and she laughed along with the rest of us.
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\nOK, your turn!
\nSubmitted to April’s scientiae-carnival<\/a>” rel=”tag”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"