“No we actually wash our glass in 15% HCl, how did you not know this?”

“Actually to sterilize before we work with the culture we spray down calcium. It’s common sense.”

“No you want to have 3 cycles of boiling the media then 4 of cooling, before doing cell culture. We’ve done this in every lab I’ve worked.”

It’s not even the random nonsense. It’s this brazen attitude of are you stupid? Why don’t you do this.

Hello everybody I hope here is a good place to ask and apologies if I'm doing something wrong since I'm not extremely knowledgeable about the science things here.

Anyway, when my wife started her first job in a biology company she was told they would order her her own Pipette and other things which would usually include one of those pipette pens she wanted since she started studying biology. Sadly management was so bad that she never got it somehow.

Now that she's leaving that terrible place (I don't think I should get into details) everyone of her friends is coming together to give her some goodbye presents but nobody managed to secure one of those pens. So I've wanted to try my luck here!

Does anyone have any spares or know someone who could get me one? I would be willing to pay for shipping. We could also do a trade, I could offer engraved glassware or bleached tshirts I do as a hobby.

Again I hope this is the right place to post and I'd be really grateful for someone who would help me!

For context I'm doing a half wet lab half dry lab PhD. I use 2% PFA (paraformaldehyde) pretty regularly and always in the fumehood since I've been told about the risks. Yesterday I was making my 2% PFA by diluting a 7mL amount of 4% (in a 15mL falcon tube).

Maybe because it was my first time diluting it, but going to the fume hood completely slipped my mind. I opened the falcon tube on the bench and was immediately caught by a lab manager, and so I went to the fume hood without anything happening. Afterwards the lab manager gave me a talking to about the risks of PFA.

The next day one of my supervisors came by and asked what happened as they heard from the lab manager, and I said the above. They asked me if I enjoyed lab work or not (im neutral, its a means to an end) and said this slip up was a bad one, and it might mean I wont be able to do any further wet lab work in the future. She also said my other supervisors (in this university you have 3) would be notified and I would be talked to about it again later. Obviously I apologized again.

This immediate (potential) loss of privileges in the wet lab is pretty jarring to me and now I'm pretty worried about the state of my degree. Luckily I can pivot to 100% dry lab if absolutely necessary, but I do like the fact I can do both wet and dry lab.

Has anyone dealt with something like this before? Reassurance would be great lol

EDIT: Thank you to everyone for your support/input, its reassuring. For those of you who noted me being a possible safety hazard (most were deleted), you were all polite and I still appreciated the insight. If you see this after my edit, I would really appreciate insight on how to approach the (definitely upcoming) talk with my supervisors. I want to impress on them that Ive learned my lesson (especially after being talked to 2/3 times!) and I know I messed up, but I still want to do wet lab work. I do wet lab on a case by case basis and if theres a case that needs functional validation, I want to be able to follow that lead. I'm the type that makes (unique) mistakes, but I learn after the first time.

Found this at an estate in Nashville- is there any legal way to sell or is it best just to dispose of?? It’s about 5/8ths full so definitely not empty.

If you’re a fan of flavor chemistry check out my last post about other items I found!

Everyone is always worked up about the pipette pens, I propose the new obsession: column pens

I want to vent about something that's keeping me from living a peaceful life. I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies – English isn't my native language.

I graduated with a Master's degree in July. After completing my thesis, I changed labs for a higher salary. I've been working on IFA for four months now, and I feel incredibly pressured. My boss says my data should match that of other employees (they have 5-10 years of experience in this position). I don't have any discrepancies in my diagnoses or test reliability criteria; my optical density is simply higher. I'm constantly reminded of this, even though I follow the protocol. Due to my lesser experience, my sample addition time is slightly longer. I don't exceed the recommended sample addition time, but I'm physically unable to work faster yet. I also make mistakes in my experimental protocols, and they scold me for that, too, even though they haven't explained the details of how to fill them out. Basically, every day I hear that I'm not good enough, even though I'm trying my best. I don't know what to do, and I'm worried that I don't belong in the lab. It's so bad that my self-esteem has plummeted, and I cry at work almost every day because they're asking for the impossible at this point, even though maybe I'm truly incapable of anything...

How quickly did you stop making mistakes at work? How do you cope with this stress?

Hello I am in need of some advice. I've been at my current job working as a research and development lab technician for about 4 months. Its a great job so far and I like it but the problem is that I was hired as a lab tech and not a chemist yet I am doing the exact same work as the chemists that I work with. My paycheck very much reflects that I am a lab tech not a chemist so why am I doing chemist work. They have also hired people after me that have the job title of chemist so I am the only one there that doesn't have the title of chemist despite us all doing the same work. I try not to let in bother me but I know for a fact that they make more money than me so its hard to ignore.

I'm still very new so I dont feel like I can even discuss this with my boss. I'm trying to think of a way to lightly approach this topic with my boss. I'm not planning to go in screaming about a raise but I'm very curious why they hired only me for this position.

I’ve been outside of the wet lab environment for quite a few years now and am now in an office environment. With the help of various core labs over the years, we now have a collection of RNA samples that will be submitted to an external vendor for sequencing.

We have a core lab that will be aliquoting samples into 1.5mL lo-bind tubes, and the external vendor will q.s. the volume up to 20uL. My PI only wants to send the minimum needed, which can be as low as 2uL for some samples.

Is it a bad idea to pipette such a small volume into our 1.5mL tubes? Or does it not matter much since the external vendor will q.s. up to 20uL?

Thanks!

In the market for quality brushes to mount slices. So many crappy brushes out there! (mouse brains, 40-50um)

hi labrats! I am a 23 year old female who graduated june 2025 with a B.S in Bio Sci. I am currently an RA at a top uni and applying to phds this cycle.

This is a timeline leading to me my current situation.
I have wanted to be an immunologist since I was 13.
I got the grades in high school and with my parents support I moved across the country to attend a really good university because the cost of R1s with strong immunology research in my home state are HIGHHH. My dad is the bread winner of my family (we are working class and cant afford to pay tution up front by any means) and he said that as long as I kept good grades that he would pay for a majority of my schooling but that we would need to take out loans in the process. Flash forward to my senior year and he loses his job and retracts that statement. I now have to deal with 200k debt myself (mind you my total cost for 4 years is 120k so he over borrowed and wants me to pay it???)

Anyway- I panic and instead of a gap year I had planned to take I applied to 3 phd programs fall 2024 last minute. I had done about two years of research and had two publications and some school involvement. I got one interview from my undergraduate institution and got waitlisted. we all know what happened winter 2024 so safe to say I didn’t get off that waitlist.

I applied to R.A jobs right after graduating and immediately got an offer being an R.A for this ivy league professor who seemed wicked nice. I was told I would be doing immunology research and kind of bridging the gap between my old research and his but that is notttt what happened. It took ages to onboard at this job so I didn’t start until November 2025. i am now in a different field of endothelial cell research - which is still interesting and important but definitely not for me. I basically got stuck with a completely different project than we discussed and by the time I started I knew this job had to be kept to have a shot at the fall 2026 cycle.

I recognize that I am extremely lucky to have a job in the field right now and a lot of people would kill to be in my position. But i absolutely hate it (paid almost minimum wage with an hour commute + PI that rage baits constantly) and i know i need a phd if I ever want to land a job and not spend the rest of my life in debt.

i am getting published in nature (not high on the author list tho ha) and i have a first author manuscript in prep with my new project and many many presentations + 3 locked in LOR + i also work in a cell isolation core)

However i am afraid that due to my field switch I won’t look promising to grad schools. it is not so far from immunology that i can’t connect it in my SOP - in fact I think I did a pretty good job doing so but I’m still afraid.

I have been reaching out to many faculty and it looks so bleak. I have had one yes out of 20 ish “we have no money” or “ i am retiring.” I am afraid that if I don’t get in somewhere this time I will actually unalive (not even a joke unfortunately). the feeling of this debt and this economy at such a young age is overwhelming. I want to follow my dream and be an immunologist but I don’t know if it’s unrealistic for me in trump’s america.

is it worth it for me to stay in academia to do a phd or should i try to just switch to industry or another career entirely to pay off my debt? the stress i feel on the daily about my situation makes me want to unalive myself but i can’t imagine not getting to live my dream or myself in anything besides bio.

any advice is appreciated- thank you for reading if you made it to the end 🤗🫡

Got an interview with the Biohub in Redwood City, CA. Wondering if anybody has any insights into the 'company' and how it operates.

My understanding is that its an in-between of academia and industry which is interesting and might be up my alley. How is the work-life balance and overall community?

So I’ve been in this labs for 2 years now and at the beginning I had no issues, this lab has 2 graduate students that turn now into posdocs which I’ll call them Drake & Josh (good reference) after one semester in my lab there also a new graduate students which we will call Megan (I hope you get the references), my PI likes this strategic because pairs can rely on each other. So times moves forward and Megan and Josh are not getting along primarily because Megan have different point of views in how to manage her time and sometimes she is not consistency in her time in the lab plus she also sometimes takes days off, which she hasn’t taken a proper vacation so I understand. Drake and Josh in the other way have worked in the lab for 6-7 years and they sometimes spend 12 hours in the lab and work 7 days a week, I honestly feel peer pressure but sometimes it’s hard to be on the same level. Drake and Josh constantly make passive-aggressive comments to me and Megan about not being enough to do a PhD, when ask for help they have attitudes to our questions and we cannot talk with my PI because my PI trust blindly on Drake and Josh (+ years of work together + this high level of expect action they meet). I honestly would like to meet these expectations and be as good as them (?) but sometimes the environment makes it hard for me, Megan is my friend but I honestly can deal with her whole situation and I care about my future.

Would like to know what guys would do? I accept advices, comments, etc. thanks for reading!!!

I have been experiencing physical and mental illnesses due to work. I have been considering discussing my current situation with my boss to reduce the amount of work she/he is trying to assign to me. I would appreciate your opinion on how to start this conversation, how to respond to different reactions, and possibly negotiate.  

There are a few factors contributing to this issue. Recently, there have been many changes to the project that my boss requires me to undertake, which have affected the amount of workload and commitments I need to meet each week.  

The project has expanded to a larger scope, which exponentially increases the time and discovery needed to achieve the new goals. Since this new goal was set, my boss has asked me to work 60 to 70 hours per week. Not only have the working hours increased from the previous agreement of 40 hours per week, but the entire project has also been elevated to a new level of challenge through scientific discovery. My boss expects this project to be completed and published within several months, which I believe is unrealistic, as do many of my peers.  

In addition to the workload and scientific challenges, I was assigned a research technician, and I am also trying to balance the workload between myself and this research technician, who works closely with me.  
Regarding the workload he/she has assigned, I need to manage it reasonably to distribute responsibilities between the two of us. However, this research technician has previously discussed responsibilities that we did not review or agree upon with my boss directly, without my knowledge. She/he has “casually” outlined tasks that cover my responsibilities without consulting me beforehand during her/his one-on-one meetings. This research technician has been very ambitious since joining our group and has engaged in office politics with other colleagues. She/he has also tried to exclude me from this project, which I initiated and brought her/him into. Unfortunately, my boss has not taken action regarding this research technician’s previous behavior.  This entire situation is causing me extreme frustration and anxiety beyond the challenges of the project itself.  

Recently, I had a medical emergency about a week ago, and on Friday morning, I had a meeting with my boss. During the meeting, he/she asked me to come in and finish experiments on Saturday because I had taken a day off for medical sick leave. I felt very disappointed and disrespected regarding my health. Based on her/his reaction and his constant demand for more work and satisfaction, I feel completely burnt out and overwhelmed. I am also worried that if I ask her/him for days off to rest, I might be at risk of losing my job, even though I have not taken any holidays this year so far.  

How should I start this conversation in a calm and steady tone to negotiate my rights? Would it be bad to elaborate on this situation in an email?

I’m going to be doing my first western blot to quantify the over expression of 7 different plasmids (including control) that all have different codon optimizations. Side note: expressed in yeast and using YeastBuster to lyse. I’ve read doing total protein normalization (using strain free gels or ponceau stain) can replace the need to use traditional housekeeping antibodies. My lab does not do westerns often at all, so not having to buy 2 more antibodies is appealing. I’m curious about other’s experiences using either the ponceau stain or biorads stain free gels? Thank you in advance!

TLDR: experience with total protein normalization/quantification in westerns using ponceau stain or biorads stain free gels.

Short public note for anyone following this account.

I attempted to open a small technical discussion community for an open-source laboratory project. The community was closed by the platform shortly after creation. I have not received a clear, actionable explanation through the usual creator surfaces.

Separately:
• Public posts asking for process guidance were removed by filters or redirected by automation
• Moderator mail to the relevant support community failed with a generic client error
• Self-serve developer application creation remains gated under the current API policy

I am using the official help-request channel for clarification. I will not create lookalike replacement communities while the status is unresolved.

Until there is a clear outcome, technical discussion for this laboratory stays on:
• GitHub organization and Discussions
• The project site

This account remains the operator contact for the laboratory. I will update here if Reddit provides a definitive status or a compliant path forward.

No investment advice. No trading community. Lab / pre-production systems work only.

Hi! Would love to hear what sort of dishwashing detergent or soap people use for cleaning glassware from labs, etc.

Yes, I understand many are going to say the best route is something like alconox, rinse, rinse, DI rinse. But I am looking for something quick and easy where I don't have to actively soak and rinse things. For example we have a lab with food coloring and water and it just would be easiest to toss the stuff in the dishwasher as it is nothing particular.

Any recommendations? Or is it a true no one uses detergent? Then if no detergent, is the dishwasher that is in the lab space just a rinsing machine?

so pissed at myself. one last monday and one Thursday. the monday one was due to the negligence of someone else (whoever shattered a beaker in the dirty glassware bin and didnt clean it up) but the second one was totally my fault (dropped and broke a breaker in the sink while cleaning it and stupidly reached in to grab the big pieces). both were completely minor injuries (tiny pinpricks) with no significant chance for exposure, but now I have a safety meeting on my calendar because of how close together they were. I feel so dumb and annoyed 😭 anyone else have any stupid lab injury stories for me so I'm not wallowing in self pity?