One evening in the lab, beyond the constant hum of incubators and refrigerators, we heard another noise. Someone was crying softly.
Peeking around the corner, we saw Lily, a Master’s student from another group standing next to the microscope, wiping tears from her cheeks.
“Hey Lily, are you okay? What happened?”
Startled she turned around and started sobbing 😭.
“My experiment. I have to start all over again.” Still sobbing, she pointed to a stack of plates next to the microscope. “There are no cells. They were there before, but now they’re gone.”
Lily sobbed even harder. “After I fixed them with formalin, all were gone!”
We examined the bottle of formalin and then everything became clear 💡.
Formalin is used to fix cells for staining, typically at the end of an experiment.
But someone had used an empty formalin bottle as a waste bottle, which is fine, but this must be very clearly labelled in large letters. This bottle was labelled as a waste bottle, but only with a tiny cross on the back 👎🙄. Thinking it was formalin, Lily had poured the waste liquid onto her cells, which dissolved them immediately.
This could easily have been avoided, and at no cost at all 🤷🏻♀️.
On the contrary, it was a huge waste of resources. Let alone how Lily was feeling 😞!
A classic example of ignorance of good practices in the lab.
Label containers correctly ☝️. Always!
#Labelling #BestPractices #Laboratory #CommonSense #STEM #MINT
Author: asban