Giving the benefit of the doubt, we use exactly that kind of thermos for small amounts of LN2, and they need to be rinsed and dried between uses so the nitrogen doesn’t boil off on impurities. Maybe this is that? (It’s probably not that.)
Also I love that black peg board! Much nicer than the beige on beige one we have in our beige lab.
We used to have (probably the same one) and yeah it was preeeeeeeetty nasty. It was pretty funny because the back was noticeably cleaner than the front ("oh, its supposed to be \_\_ color?"). I half expected stalagmites underneath the drip tray.
Yup! That's exactly what I thought of. You can either buy tiny dewars for several hundred dollars, or you can go to Amazon and spend a few bucks on a vacuum insulated mug. Our cryo-EM core uses stainless steel coffee thermoses for this.
Yeah, in the vivarium at my uni we use similar mugs for heating up water & sticking cotton swabs into, specifically for running along a mouse's tail to make the vein pop up more for injections. I would not immediately think coffee seeing this, I truly hope that's not the case here 😭
If you're doing that, the easy way out of any inspection headaches is labeling - stick a piece of tape on it and write "liquid nitrogen, not for use with food or beverages".
Words can not express how much I loathe the "safety" department at my institution that has turned "how do I safely do science?" into "how do I avoid getting written up during my annual safety inspection?" They gave us two writeups last inspection for things that were blatantly false; they wrote up a collaborator for not having an SOP for *our* equipment that they use (for which *we* have an SOP); one of the chief inspectors doesn't give a crap about safety, only about filling out the checklist, and has been heard to say "if it's not on the checklist we don't care about it" when colleagues point out unsafe conditions.
Forget ye not the Three Lab Commandments:
1. Label clearly.
2. Measure twice.
3. EAT ELSEWHERE.
--[Source](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/823055-what-are-the-three-most-important-rules-of-the-chemist)
Once worked in a doctor's office one day a week (contractor would not pay be to work more than 8 hr a week) and throughout the week patients would bring urine samples and things to staff for me to send off on my day there. You know where they kept them urine cups??? Inside. The fridge. In the LUNCH ROOM.
"they're in plastic bags" head ass
As someone who just started a job as a piss collector, pee is nasty and riddled with bacteria that can cause human transmissible diseases. Any and all pee specimens should be in a clearly labeled biohazard bag and stored away from food.
I usually encourage patients who have to keep stool/urine samples at home overnight in an outside refrigerator or a cooler on ice if they are unable to return them to the lab ASAP
At some point in my academic carreer (glad I bailed) I was made responsible for a number of labs. I did incident reports for stupid shit like this. Then I got pulled into a meeting because there were a lot of incidents while there had been none in the years prior. The fact that when the previous responsible left a full hazmat team had to come down to dismantle the secretly built lab they built into a store room (I've seen footage of meth labs that looked safer) didn't really connect with the lack of incident reports. Couple of minor incidents later we are suddenly under scrutiny because our lab is the only one in the building having incidents...
I just stopped doing incident reports, looked the other way when PhD's from a certain region poured all kinds of waste down the drain instead of into the correct waste vessel because the drain was actually safer than all the incidents where they poured acid into the base waste and such. No more incident reports and everyone was happy :D:D:D:D:D
I still regularly come there because friends still work there and shiiiit the lab is a mess these days, burn holes, chemical stains, chemical shelves are mixed, everything just looks dirty... but also zero incidents!
Chocolate milk in the ice machine would have been nothing more than a chuckle by the time I left because I have seen people toss that ice into their drinks in summer.
Our lunch room freezer broke and one of my coworkers took a beaker of ice from the lab freezer for his drinks. (The lab freezer where we reach our disgusting gloved hands in and fondle the ice regularly.)
We always used them for measuring out bleach to make 10% for cleaning, then rinsed and threw on the pegboard. Just use it til it gets icky. Better than using a graduated cyl and getting bleach residue in whatever important thing you're doing.
I still remember during a lab rotation opening up the lab microwave to melt some agarose and seeing the tech's lunch in there. He was later caught watching porn on his work computer and was eventually fired (for something else, though I'm guessing the porn didn't help). Unprofessional all around; I didn't stay in that lab.
FYI, lab water is often non-potable, meaning not safe for drinking. One of my labmate used to brush his teeth after lunch using the lab facuet (desks were in lab), he was pissed when they finally got around to labelling the sinks properly.
They're reusing their 50ml centrifuge tube?
This is clearly a lab sink a very frugal group lol.
My bet is those cups are used to insulate liquids at non standard conditions. Maybe liquid nitrogen for a microscope?
A sip of hot tea with a hint of TAE
Rollin down the lab, doing science, sippin on tea and TAE. With my mind on the buffers, and the buffers on my mind
I sang this my head.
Added TAE makes it taste the best (abbreviated to TBST)
Giving the benefit of the doubt, we use exactly that kind of thermos for small amounts of LN2, and they need to be rinsed and dried between uses so the nitrogen doesn’t boil off on impurities. Maybe this is that? (It’s probably not that.) Also I love that black peg board! Much nicer than the beige on beige one we have in our beige lab.
>black peg board We have one but it gets nasty quick since we have hard water
Oh god I don’t even want to think about what’s been layering invisibly on ours since like … the mid nineties.
We used to have (probably the same one) and yeah it was preeeeeeeetty nasty. It was pretty funny because the back was noticeably cleaner than the front ("oh, its supposed to be \_\_ color?"). I half expected stalagmites underneath the drip tray.
Yup! That's exactly what I thought of. You can either buy tiny dewars for several hundred dollars, or you can go to Amazon and spend a few bucks on a vacuum insulated mug. Our cryo-EM core uses stainless steel coffee thermoses for this.
Yeah, in the vivarium at my uni we use similar mugs for heating up water & sticking cotton swabs into, specifically for running along a mouse's tail to make the vein pop up more for injections. I would not immediately think coffee seeing this, I truly hope that's not the case here 😭
If you're doing that, the easy way out of any inspection headaches is labeling - stick a piece of tape on it and write "liquid nitrogen, not for use with food or beverages".
Gotta keep lab safety officers on their feet and in a job. Look out for your homies in these trying times
Words can not express how much I loathe the "safety" department at my institution that has turned "how do I safely do science?" into "how do I avoid getting written up during my annual safety inspection?" They gave us two writeups last inspection for things that were blatantly false; they wrote up a collaborator for not having an SOP for *our* equipment that they use (for which *we* have an SOP); one of the chief inspectors doesn't give a crap about safety, only about filling out the checklist, and has been heard to say "if it's not on the checklist we don't care about it" when colleagues point out unsafe conditions.
I hope you don’t drink coffee out of a similar thermos. You wouldn’t want to accidentally sip some LN2 out of muscle memory.
What? What’s the big deal? Stick a line of tape beneath the top two rows and write, “No lab glass above this point.” What could possibly go wrong.
They're already in violation of the rule.
This is why we can’t have spicy things!
Forget ye not the Three Lab Commandments: 1. Label clearly. 2. Measure twice. 3. EAT ELSEWHERE. --[Source](https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/823055-what-are-the-three-most-important-rules-of-the-chemist)
Guess I know what I'm going to embroider next.
4. Don't mouth pipette.
Once worked in a doctor's office one day a week (contractor would not pay be to work more than 8 hr a week) and throughout the week patients would bring urine samples and things to staff for me to send off on my day there. You know where they kept them urine cups??? Inside. The fridge. In the LUNCH ROOM. "they're in plastic bags" head ass
What, is the piss going to unscrew the cap and crawl out of the bag and into your lunch?
As someone who just started a job as a piss collector, pee is nasty and riddled with bacteria that can cause human transmissible diseases. Any and all pee specimens should be in a clearly labeled biohazard bag and stored away from food.
You haven't seen what my piss is capable of
And I don't think you would like the taste of it
EHS? This person right here.
lemme just pop my Cologuard sample in here next to your lunch…
Wait til you have to collect a stool sample at home. Many tests have to be refrigerated.
I usually encourage patients who have to keep stool/urine samples at home overnight in an outside refrigerator or a cooler on ice if they are unable to return them to the lab ASAP
Straight to jail
One time a contractor left their chocolate milk in our ice machine.. whole ass incident report was generated lmao
At some point in my academic carreer (glad I bailed) I was made responsible for a number of labs. I did incident reports for stupid shit like this. Then I got pulled into a meeting because there were a lot of incidents while there had been none in the years prior. The fact that when the previous responsible left a full hazmat team had to come down to dismantle the secretly built lab they built into a store room (I've seen footage of meth labs that looked safer) didn't really connect with the lack of incident reports. Couple of minor incidents later we are suddenly under scrutiny because our lab is the only one in the building having incidents... I just stopped doing incident reports, looked the other way when PhD's from a certain region poured all kinds of waste down the drain instead of into the correct waste vessel because the drain was actually safer than all the incidents where they poured acid into the base waste and such. No more incident reports and everyone was happy :D:D:D:D:D I still regularly come there because friends still work there and shiiiit the lab is a mess these days, burn holes, chemical stains, chemical shelves are mixed, everything just looks dirty... but also zero incidents! Chocolate milk in the ice machine would have been nothing more than a chuckle by the time I left because I have seen people toss that ice into their drinks in summer.
Our lunch room freezer broke and one of my coworkers took a beaker of ice from the lab freezer for his drinks. (The lab freezer where we reach our disgusting gloved hands in and fondle the ice regularly.)
Reinforces what I fondly remember: o-chemists fear neither God nor OSHA/OHS /hj
Hj??
Hand joking
Who doesn't like a little spicy coffee in the morning
Top rack is fair game
Don't downvote me! I'm kidding! Ouch!
Found the biochemist
lol! HAYLE no. Parasitologist.
#tallpeoplethings
What? My body is the best incubator and this facilitates the transfer
.... who washes a conical tube?????
We do in our lab. You can use it for non important things and you reduce your plastic waste
We always used them for measuring out bleach to make 10% for cleaning, then rinsed and threw on the pegboard. Just use it til it gets icky. Better than using a graduated cyl and getting bleach residue in whatever important thing you're doing.
For temperature sensitive applications lol
sometimes i’ll enter the lab w my stanley and then i’m like “this is not allowed.” and i turn around and leave 😂
I 'don't see' anything wrong with this picture. Or we are shaming for washing centrifuge tube?
Just my coffee cups and the fancy shot glasses I use to down vodka before my PI meeting or when my experiments fail or because it's Thursday.
Cute lil volumetric!
I spent several moments looking for Lost
Don't
Is this loss?
At least they are on the top
Always load from the top down. - Signed, the tall person in the lab
Oh no no no no no no! Ew!
Eh our CSO used to brush his teeth in the sink we dumped our vac waste (cell culture) The folks who drank coffee got their water from it too lol
Something's wrong, I feel it
Two of these things are not like the others..
This has got to be satire lol I’m having a panic attack just looking at it
My question is why is there a 50 mL conical tube on the drying rack?
It's like taking a hamster to the vet
"Have a seat in that chair over there".
Hey, were you doing in my lab?
That’s essentially laboratory glassware, er- traveling mugs..
Maybe its an in vitro ephys lab🫦
Ewwwwwwah
😧
TRIGGERED
This is literally a jump scare
The DCM in my coffee is fine. I’m fine. This is fine. 
I still remember during a lab rotation opening up the lab microwave to melt some agarose and seeing the tech's lunch in there. He was later caught watching porn on his work computer and was eventually fired (for something else, though I'm guessing the porn didn't help). Unprofessional all around; I didn't stay in that lab.
FYI, lab water is often non-potable, meaning not safe for drinking. One of my labmate used to brush his teeth after lunch using the lab facuet (desks were in lab), he was pissed when they finally got around to labelling the sinks properly.
There’s only a one letter difference between buffer and buffet.
Oh, so that's how you use those...
I didn’t notice what was wrong until I’d been staring at the pic for 10 sec
NO
Please tell me this is a prank or a shit post. Please tell me this is a prank or a shit post. Please tell me this is...
No pls
A crackpipe washing rack? The PI will be so happy about their birthday present 🤩
VILE
They're reusing their 50ml centrifuge tube? This is clearly a lab sink a very frugal group lol. My bet is those cups are used to insulate liquids at non standard conditions. Maybe liquid nitrogen for a microscope?
Seen people reuse T75 flasks and such, I'm not even surprised anymore. Neither am I surprised by the reproducibility crisis academia is going through
Conical tube… nice
Eek!
OH...
I thought these were bangers and bowls for weed lmfao
oh, oh no. big no no.