• Question: Before you can do an experiment is there anything you need to do before you start like if your doing an experiment with animals?

    Asked by billy to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 20 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Hi Billy,

      Before I start an experiment, especially if I am using eggs or embryos I need to make sure that all the paperwork is in order, so this is stuff like making sure the ethics approval forms have been signed, the people donating the samples have to sign lots of forms and I need to make sure they are all in order.

      Once all that is in place, I then make sure I have all the chemicals and reagents I need for the experiment. I lay everything out ready and waiting. I also have to make a note of all the batch numbers on all the chemicals and solutions. I then have to check all my equipment is in working order and I need to record all the temperatures of the incubators and fridges. This all needs to be done before I start, then the fun begins!

    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi Billy

      Thanks for your question. There are quite a few things you have to do and planning the experiment out is vital. You must be sure of what exactly it is that you want to find out, and how you are going to measure what has happened. You must also carefully plan what your controls are going to be- they help you to know whether the response you get is real or not. With animals is it important to think through how many you actually will need to get significant results. You should also check to make sure you have everything you will need and that someone else hasn’t used the last of your vital drug/reagent!

      Planning is the key to successful experiments, sometimes you get caught up and rush to get things done but you inevitably make mistakes that way and either the experiment doesn’t work or the results are meaningless because you forgot about the right controls!

    • Photo: James Chan

      James Chan answered on 18 Mar 2011:

      Hi Billy,
      that is a very logical and practical question to ask.
      Yes, there’s lots of planning involved, especially if you are working with animals. first and foremost, you have to make sure what you are doing to the animals does not cause them any suffering or pain. In fact the government makes us tell them in minute detail how we are going to do this. Then you have to grow the mice to the age you need them at, and you need to set up your equipment and medications like anaesthesia and painkillers. I operate on mice, so they are tiny. their legs, which I operate on, are no longer than the fingernail on your little finger, so I need magnifying glasses and tiny instruments to help me do the stitching and so on.

      I also work out the smallest number of animals I will need to operate on because I don’t want to do unnecessary operations on mice and then I have to make sure they have nice bedding and food and painkillers in their cages for when they wake up afterwards. they get looked after very well.

    • Photo: Emma King

      Emma King answered on 19 Mar 2011:

      Hi billy, thanks for your question. I don’t work in the laboratory so I don’t do experiments but researchers who do have to take lots of things into considerations. There are lots of licenses that need to be acquired and inspections to go through – both for stem cell and animal work. The other scientists can probably tell you more about what precisely they have to do.

    • Photo: Kara Cerveny

      Kara Cerveny answered on 20 Mar 2011:

      Chance favors the prepared mind. Louis Pasteur.
      Billy, in addition to planning ahead and taking animal care courses and making sure that you are prepared to treat the animals in your research as humanely as possible, you need to think carefully about what you want to learn from your experiment so that when you get the results, you know how to analyze them and how to think about them to get the most information possible.

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