I get anti-science vibes from this and I don’t know if it’s deliberate but I hate it. Oversimplifying the scientific process and highlighting the worst parts without explaining what these sacrifices and contributions work towards.
We live on a vast, vast historical mountain of skulls and sorrow and pain and suffering to have a world where you can drive for 5 - 30 minutes in any direction and get antibiotics and fever reducing medication, where we can work on a chair all day and earn enough to go to a grocery store and buy food that you know won’t kill you or give your kids dysentery.
We do better honoring these sacrifices than whinge that science isn’t giving back enough for its cost. You owe ALL your comforts to this process that is largely misunderstood or even actively attacked. It makes no sense to me.
If you want to advocate for newer forms of scientific research that don’t rely on things like chemical exposure or animal testing, that’s fine, lets do that. Let’s not throw away the scientific process just because you don’t fucking understand it.
Na this is actual intrusive thoughts from someone who has spent a considerable amount of time in a lab. It’s legit. I felt seen reading this comic. The plastic waste makes me shudder. Also experiments actually just fail sometimes, not even giving a positive or negative result. The method went wrong or a reagent was cooked.
Same. I’ve used tens of thousands of pipette tips. I can’t imagine what my lifetime plastic consumption is like compared to your average person. I’m guessing I’m like a small neighborhood.
Also experiments actually just fail sometimes, not even giving a positive or negative result. The method went wrong or a reagent was cooked.
You should know better than to start an experiment on Tuesdays!
I can relate too.
It took me a second to see your angle. I gotta say tho’, I have felt this way many times and I will continue to do so. To someone from the field, it is quite relatable. I assume it is also intended in such a way.
I was maintenance in a lab for a few years and these seemed to be common jokes, especially the plastic.
Just got a reply to it from a friend who’s a tech there “yep, pretty much”
Maybe it’s just me, but inconclusive results are still results, and get you a tiny step closer to the solution by redirecting you in a different direction.
What if they results was “vacuum chamber got sprayed with media when I left the lid loose again” and “glassware that is sealed and put into the autoclave once again shatters”?
“Successfully replicated the findings of Miller, et al, 1962 that dropping the test tube on the way to the spectroscopy machine makes the custodial staff annoyed with you”
Solving the replication crisis, one untied shoelace at a time!
“Decontaminated vacuum chamber to prevent future false positives”
“Glassware temperature limits tested and confirmed”
We live in an inherently lossy universe. We can do our best, but entropy comes for us all.
🤣🤣 The process is going to have inefficiencies
Denovo Techniques in Waste Generation and Cost Overruns: A Look Into the Walrus-Dragon Lab Methodology
“I forgot to add the sample and lyophilized pure water for 40 hours.”
“Someone deviated from the SOP while doing dishes and now there is unidentified black material in my sample.”
“I accidentally dropped and broke a vial, losing several weeks worth of work done by myself and others. Recovery and repurification was not possible.”
“My boss changed their mind partway through the study, so it was abandoned.”
And they should be published.
This is why all centrifuges should be hand-cranked.
Chase the lab blues away with some vigorous physical stimulation.
In lew of a hand cranked centrifuge, we installed a Crank machine next to the centrifuge, for “
reforming offendersstimulating researchers by teaching them habits of industry.”…and does nothing useful.
So a day at the lab then.
Sorry, but there’s been a blanket ban on any “vigorous physical stimulation” in the lab ever since the incident
Oh, you were one of them that worked with the dolphins?
I’m not at liberty to confirm or deny.
Are you telling me I could get paid to hand-crank my centrifuge? I’ve been doing it for free all these years.
I find it helps if you reuse the animals you kill for dinner that night.
Cons: cause a global pandemic.
Pros: free dinner.
I see no problem with this.
Nah, just cook them very, very, very thoroughly first, and you’ll be fine.
Include high-concentration strong base in the cooking process if it involves prions!
I mean, that’s just basic cooking technique!
If the prions are denatured there’s probably not much left of your meal
Low-guilt free dinner!
Also a global pandemic has historically been good for the planet.
any White Castle near a lab: IT’S 100% BEEF I PROMISE
Or…
Same shit different day.
