• Question: what is the funniest moment that you have had as a scientist

    Asked by jonahcowen to Emma, James, Jayne, Kara, Sharon on 22 Mar 2011 in Categories: .
    • Photo: Jayne Charnock

      Jayne Charnock answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      Once i set fire to a beaker full of ethanol. i was very new to the lab and i was terrified i was going to get yelled at! so i hid round the corner and hoped noone found me! eventually it burnt out! not really very funny at the time but now i look back and laugh about all the really stupid things i did when i first started! I also once thought that there was like some giant virus in my dish of cells when i looked under the microscope- i ran and got my more senior friend and he started laughing and said ‘Jayne, they are bubbles….!’. Doh!!!

    • Photo: Sharon Sneddon

      Sharon Sneddon answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      I’ve had quite a few, but the funniest happened quite recently. I’m well known in the lab for liking the colour pink, I have pink folders, pink pens, pink calculator pink lunchboxes pink diary and a pink lab book. I’ve mentioned a few times that I would love to work in an all pink lab…

      A few weeks ago, I was weighing out a chemical called Oil Red O. This is used to stain fat cells so we can see them under the microscope. I dropped a teeny tiny amount on the floor, so after I was finished weighing it, I got some paper towel to clean up what I had spilt. However, when I rubbed it up, the tiny amount spread everywhere making a big pink splodge on the floor. I then went to get some floor cleaner to try and clean it up but it was the totally wrong thing to use as the stain then got MASSIVE. It went from a few grains to a patch about 2 meters by 2 meters, I then tried to use some alcohol then solvents to clean it up, some bleach, some acetone (nail varnish remover) but nothing shifted this huge pink stain.

      I decided to leave it till the next day, but when I came into work, my boss, and the head of the department were in our lab and they were stood next to the pink bit looking puzzled. I then walked over and they all looked at me and as my lab coat was pink as well, I guessed they knew it was me! They all started laughing and my boss said I might have known it was you that turned the lab pink. I thought I was going to get into trouble, but luckily they saw the funny side…

    • Photo: Kara Cerveny

      Kara Cerveny answered on 22 Mar 2011:

      thanks for the question jonahcowen. i think the most fun i had as a scientist was when I organized and worked with several high school students for their summer work experience. we had a great time and they always had funny things to say about the fish embryos I was using in my research.

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