Comments on: Hold your dung

By: fillyjonk

fillyjonk — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 13:09:30 +0000

Not only do I mark everything in my lab (seeds, soil, frozen root samples) that could even remotely be considered “trash” by someone who is more anal-retentive about neatness than I, I also label the equipment that NEEDS to stay in the room, after having had my carefully-acquired and hoarded store of multicolored Sharpies that I was using to mark different days-of-germination pilfered.

Unfortunately, a lot of people in research operate under the “It’s easier to ask forgiveness than ask permission” motto.

But yeah. It’s just lab courtesy to ask before throwing ANYTHING, no matter how insignificant-looking, away. (I follow the protocol of not disposing of any material or data until after the paper has been successfully published.)

By: Monday Evening

Monday Evening — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 21:35:51 +0000

Three links…

Imagine if material you had collected for serious academic use were just thrown out one day. That’s what happened to this graduate student….

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 17:12:50 +0000

I don’t think his career is in the crapper, exactly; he’s still on track for his PhD, with a couple minor changes to the thesis.

By: sya

sya — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:48:00 +0000

It’s his own fault that his academic career went down the toilet. Isn’t one of the first things you learn in lab is to assiduously label everything you’ve worked on? (I know that the cow poop in our lab is definitely marked even though it’s quite easy to get more.)

By: CGHill

CGHill — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:27:38 +0000

Some people have no sense of doody, I suppose.

By: McGehee

McGehee — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 16:09:57 +0000

A guy spends years engaged in (what he obviously considers) serious research, but the bag containing his prized specimens collected over the course of (did I mention) years of research is UNMARKED?

He should take the 500 quid and the obviously much needed lesson in research protocols, and like it.