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akestler said:That was the final straw in realizing a phd in organic was not really for me.
Yeah, I think I'll stick with cell bio and pathology 🙂
akestler said:That was the final straw in realizing a phd in organic was not really for me.
dilated said:Geez man, wasn't the massive fuming as soon as you syringed the PBr3 out a hint about how nasty it is?
I actually did something similar once. I took an overly liberal interpretation of "dropwise" PBr3 addition and it blew up into my manifold line. Apparently among its many powers is the ability to digest tygon tubing.
frany584 said:I actually didn't get crystals at all...I got this thing that looked like a piece of chewed gum lol My professor never could explain what went wrong, but he was pretty puzzled at how I made that!![]()
yanky5 said:When doing research in college, I accidentally splashed mercury all over the table (I was working with a 2 lb jar of it). Oops!!! It took me 30 minutes to clean it up with the rest of the lab helping out and they were very pissed.
It's very hard to clean up mercury since it's like that liquid metal dude in terminator 2. When you touch a droplet, it rolls away.
So how do you dispose then?OctoDoc said:Yep. Read my post way earlier in this thread. Have you noticed that there are no drains under those showers? OSHA won't let them be installed, for fear of washing chemicals into the groundwater system.
mshheaddoc said:So how do you dispose then?
mshheaddoc said:So how do you dispose then?
lol...I like that one, Octo!OctoDoc said:But, as we all know Dilution is the Solution to Pollution
Compass said:Well, I didn't do anything that resulted in loss of equipment, but I did pour a small amount (about 50-some pellets) of dry ice into the sink and rinse it with water. It's quite fun bailing carbon dioxide out of a sink with an ice bucket. Completely overflowed a 2 foot x 2 foot x 1.5 foot sink.
Here's another one. A lab attending told our class that once a class was doing an experiment where they incubate chicken's eggs and look at them under the microscope to see the embryo. When they were done looking at the embryo, they threw it into this heating tub. Someone forgot to clean out the tub for a few weeks (I guess it was vacation or something) and the embryos matured into chickens and there were 25 chickens roaming around the lab building!!!
We were doing the same experiment that day, so it was funny.
I think I might have broken the autoclave. Numerous people have attempted to turn it off, but there is steam spewing from it and the entire floor is a cool 85 degrees. Oops. Good thing I'm going to med school.
Wow, that reminds me - my gen chem professor told us about a guy who figured HF would be great for cleaning his floor, and after he got a little on him, he realized it doesn't burn your skin, so he didn't worry about it. And he sloshed it around. And got it all over himself. And at some point down the road, his bones started breaking repeatedly in many different places. That sucks!Wow! HF is a bone seeker, meaning that it doesn't readily damage flesh. Instead, it is absorbed into the bone near where contact was made, and can cause problems years after exposure. I hope it was very dilute. If not, don't be surprised if your face hurts years down the road. And not because you're ugly (J/K!!).
Ha! You mop it up and pour it down the sink drain!
Although OSHA would probably say to put the mopped up water into containers, label them as chemical waste, and have them shipped off for incineration. Incinerate water.
But, as we all know Dilution is the Solution to Pollution, down the drain it goes.
I think I might have broken the autoclave. Numerous people have attempted to turn it off, but there is steam spewing from it and the entire floor is a cool 85 degrees. Oops. Good thing I'm going to med school.
I broke the big centrifuge - the one that is bigger than a washing machine. Yeah that one. Did you know that when you screw that bugger up it locks itself for 48 hours and automatically calls its own service person?
My research director had tears in his eyes (as did I).
AHHH - animals are the worst!!!!! I worked in a lab using mice and rats where we had to hold the mice flipped over on their back with their head immobilized to deliver their doses. Sometimes they would COMPLETELY freak out and DIE!!! In your hands! Like have a heart attack or panic attack or something - can you imagine killing an animal with your hands??!?! Holy "Of Mice and Men" gone bad...
things that people have done, though. One of my favs is the girl at NIH two summers ago who got corneal burns because she didn't know that when visualizing your gels with UV light using eye protection is probably a good idea. 🙄
Ohh I see. The protocol I was taught (and that is ingrained in my mind since we were working with compressed liquid Cl2 cylinders around our government clients) is that it's supposed to be chained to the wall, or you're supposed to have the protective cap in place over the regulator before any sort of transport/movement.
I've always wanted to see one fly tho...heard they can go through walls!