I’ve been writing a lot the past couple of weeks (for a proposal, not here, unfortunately), but I came across this bit about when you know you’ve been in the lab too long, and thought it was a lot of fun. 
Some of them are DEFINITELY true — I particularly love #1, #8, #33 and #50, (but really #47). Which others do you think are likely for me? Which ones are you?
Happy Friday!
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So many good ones! Using aliquot in a sentence! Definitely have to go online to check the weather, not a window in sight unless we are working in Micro!
Lol. We totally ignore the fire alarms.
I love being a lab rat! But, I have never wanted to drink the distilled water. Ew.
And I don’t miss mouth-pipetting, but I sure remember doing a lot of it back in the day!
In grad school I did a lot of mouth-pipetting of media and things. But not so much anymore. I used to drink the dH2O until we got a filter on the tap.
I’ve heard of “aliquots” (and I can pronounce it with and without a French accent). How much does that count for?
AB — I never thought of pronouncing aliquots WITH a French accent, but now I’m going to start doing that. :)
LOL @ # 5 – the manservant is an astrophysicist & that expression just naturally rolls off his tongue. Number 45 amuses me.
MJ — I use that all the time too. It surprises me when people don’t know what it means!
That and “first order approximation” are two of my favorite phrases!
I suspect you won’t attend a conference if the food is awful, but you’re still a pretty good dancer and will impress the other scientists with your moves on the ballroom floor. (Are science conferences held at places with ballrooms? English conferences are usually held on college campuses, so we’re lucky to be able to party in the faculty lounge.)
I hope to god you’re not one of those guys who drinks out of a beaker! I knew one researcher who routinely used a beaker for a coffee cup, until he discovered someone had used his “cup” to measure nitric acid. Luckily he was alert enough to spit it out before he swallowed, but he ended up in an ER anyway for acid burns in his mouth.
HG — ALL science conference food is terrible. Though these days you’re usually just getting coffee, tea, and snacks and off to fend for yourself for actual meals.
The big science conferences can be as many as 10000 people and are held in big convention centers, the more normal ones are 500-1000 and are usually at a hotel with ballrooms. There are occasionally “mixers” that have pay-bars and music, but you couldn’t get me within 1000 feet of the dance floor. It’s actually usually really creepy, since the men-to-woman ratio is pretty high, watching a whole bunch of desperate guys try to scam the few available women.
I do though appreciate your confidence in my dance moves! :)
I am 1,2,5,6 (oh yeah, 6), 25, 28 (yeah baby, that’s me alright), 40.
I would have identified you with 1, 8 and 9 !
LG — HAH!! I will admit to occasionally snowballing some people with scientific jargon for pleasure, but not TOO often I hope! :)
I AM very good at diluting and transferring through! :)
I’d add “You refer to your home as ‘the other lab/library'” to the list. Some days it takes me three tries before I can say where I am actually going!
I don’t want to discuss the number of times I’ve absent-mindedly started driving towards former lab-homes!
I’m not a scientist but I, too, love bijoux!!
Oh.
Everyone loves bijouxes!
wincing
Only because they’re true! –ish
Everyone doesn’t use “orders of magnitude?” Oh.
I definitely want parafilm at home. Also those little plastic pipettes. And I haven’t done lab work in more than 15 years.
I’m surprised all of us don’t have parafilm at home. I guess it would mark you as a lab-stealer in a way that a token pen doesn’t. :)
I’m not a scientist, but I do watch a lot of big bang and I believe they nitro-froze some bananas for their cereal in one episode. :)