AsianScientist (Sep. 6, 2016) – When you work in a lab for long enough, you start to learn that there are certain situations that can give us all ‘heart attacks.’
For example, my lab had decided to purchase a new, state-of-the-art piece of equipment and the choice had come down to two different manufacturers. To try and influence our decision, both companies agreed to loan us an instrument for a trial period. Woohoo!!!
After the initial excitement of using the machines, I started to develop some concerns. There seemed to be a billion little steps required to turn them both on and off. Also, given that some of the settings involved limited supply of a substance required for the instrument to function properly and that would need to be replaced after a certain duration of use, you can imagine my worry.
One night as I was settling myself in at home, I had a sudden freak out—DID I FORGET TO TURN OFF ONE OF THE MACHINES?!? Half an hour later, after driving back in, the answer was unfortunately yes. But luckily, since I remembered my blunder, it was only on for a couple of extra hours as opposed to the entire night. And so, I didn’t have to explain to the company how I destroyed it in such a short period of time.
After this little incident, I would write on my hand a reminder to check the instruments before heading home at night (whew).
So, what are the stuff of nightmares for scientists?
- Forgetting a key sample preparation or analysis step
Assuming your instruments are functioning perfectly well, ruining a sample that you’re going to run on your machine is a common occurrence. In fact, I’m going to say that until you’ve ruined at least one sample pre-analysis, you can’t call yourself a real scientist!
That isn’t to say it isn’t incredibly painful—there’s nothing like having to exclude a sample and ruining your n because you forgot to acidify your solution or to carry out one of the washing steps. In my opinion, however, it is much worse to mess up your analysis.
This is especially bad when you return after a period of time to go over your analysis and your results are different to the ones you got before. Uh oh, I’m getting flashbacks right now!
- When the routine protocol stops working, or simply, doesn’t work for you
Maybe this situation is mostly related to biology-related fields, but when I think about the number of people I know who’ve cried over antibody batches that magically stopped working, or animals that react in the opposite way to all the others in the cohort… it’s hard not to feel their pain.
Speaking from my own personal experience, I once simultaneously ran a polymerase chain reaction assay with a colleague to figure out if the problem was the kit or if it was me.
It was me.
After this, I was banned from running that particular experiment, which was both a relief but also a mystery: HOW COULD IT WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE IN PARALLEL, BUT NOT FOR ME?!?!
However, I do know of some people who can take it in their stride. One lab once warned me that for reasons that could never be completely explained, an assay in their lab would only work during the cooler months of the year. Solution? Only run those experiments between late Autumn to mid-Spring!
- Publication limbo
Anybody who’s made a paper their ‘baby,’ only to have it cruelly rejected by an editor without review, or worse, by reviewer three, will know this pain. This is especially nightmarish in the precarious ‘publish or perish’ environment of academia.
It isn’t always without hope, though.
One day, a senior scientist with whom I share office space but never any projects rolled their chair away from their desk, leaned back, and proceeded to let out a silent scream while flexing their arms ‘super saiyan’ style before rolling back and putting their head on the desk.
This person was known for being incredibly calm, so watching it was a bit disconcerting. After a few minutes, I carefully approached said person and asked if they were okay.
They looked up at me with tears in their eyes and gasped out, “Yes! Everything’s fine! A paper that had been rejected multiple times, even after making reviewer-requested new experiments and re-writes has finally been accepted.”
“Wow! That’s great news!” was my reply. “But why this reaction?”
“Because the study was first submitted six years ago…”
- Running out of funds
Oh man, I don’t think it’s even necessary to discuss what a nightmare this situation would be.
All I can say is that I hope these things will never happen to you, but don’t be surprised if they do. All one can really do is just be prepared and try to keep your cool.
And I’d like to think that I followed my own advice when a PhD student recently approached me in tears to tell me that they forgot to turn off one of the borrowed instruments and it had been active over the weekend…
This article is from a monthly column called The Sometimes Serious Scientist. Click here to see the other articles in this series.
———
Source: Asian Scientist Magazine; Photo: Shutterstock.
Disclaimer: This article does not necessarily reflect the views of AsianScientist or its staff.
