LAB LIFE
The small disasters, the tiny wins, and the protocols that never go as planned. Gifts for scientists who plan their day around an incubation step.
DMEM
Expectations: breakthroughs, Nobel Prize, curing diseases, changing lives. Reality: contamination, deadlines, and Reviewer 2. Monday again.
Keep Calm Tips
You have 25 samples. You take a look at the tip box. Looks like enough. Ten minutes later, 23 samples loaded in the gel waiting to run, and you... you're having fun.
Keep Calm Epp
Wild type. 2 mutants. 4 treatments. 3 replicates. Positive control. Negative control. That's 42 tubes. Coffee, Spotify and good luck.
Keep Calm Count Cells
1, 2, 3, 4, 5. Wait, no. Once again. 1, 2, 3, 4... 28, 29. Someone asks you a question. Once again. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 54. Damn it. Did I already count that square? Count. Hate. Repeat.
Keep Calm Pass Cells
Friday, 7 PM. Your friends are having fun. But someone has to take care of the cells. They're counting on you.
Keep Calm PBS
You open the fridge, grab the bottle and it's empty. Someone used the last drop and didn't refill it. Again.
Running on caffeine
You have three experiments running. Two project proposals. One paper. And your PI just asked if you can squeeze one more thing. Sleep is optional. Coffee is not.
Define a Mol
1 mM. 10 µM. 3 M. Tris. NaCl. HEPES. Sucrose... You prepare them daily. You calculate them perfectly. But if someone asks you to actually define what a mole is? Good luck with that.
Sharing is Caring
You labeled it. You wrote your name. You even put it in YOUR shelf. And still, someone used half the bottle for their "quick experiment." My medium, my rules.