Struggles of Cell Biologists 🥴
Peaceful darkness and through the open window, I hear crickets chirping in the garden 🦗🌳. But I also hear myself panting in panic, sitting upright in bed and staring into the darkness 👀.
Did I add that other positive control to our experiment? Or did I forget? With my heart pounding, I jump out of bed and switch on the lights. It is two o’clock in the morning. Should I take a night cab, rush to the lab and check my lab book? We will have to start all over! The heart’s pounding faster now. Then – it dawns on me 💡.
I did add that control group. I remember now clearly, because I almost spilled the tube before pipetting.
I go into the kitchen, get a glass of water, trying to calm down. When will I learn to stay calm and not get carried away by anxious thoughts and fear about some experiments 🫣?
I switch off the lights and return to my bed. The crickets are still chirping in the nocturnal garden 🦉🌙, but I will not fall asleep any time soon. Tossing around, I realize, as long as I care, I will always be anxious about experiments, about my scientific questions, about my literature search and about my abilities as a scientist or a supervisor.
Is this a bad thing? Well, if not bad, it is at least very unpleasant 😏. Hopping out of bed at the dead of night periodically and panicking is not exactly the kind of person I want to be 🙄. Listening to the crickets for a while, I finally start to feel sleepy. Turning around, I close my eyes. I know that I want to be the person who cares, because the outcome of every experiment matters to me. 😊🙏
#ScientificIntegrity #LifeSciences #LabExperiment #Reproducibility #STEM #MINT #CellCulture
Author: asban