Lab rant
For the benefit of muh friends here as well... x-posting from fb
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I'm sure most of my friends know that I blog on biotech issues, and most of the time, I focus on student perspectives and related matters, mainly because I'm half-way here and half-way there. Not to sound arrogant, but I have students who keep asking me about prospects etc., and I'm pretty confident in replying them, as from my vantage point, I have a good view of industry and academia, while being able to give sound advice to both on what to expect.
Now, of late I've been grumbling a lot. Why? Mainly because I'm pretty exasperated on how technically challenged our juniors are, and in effect sometimes question how mentally challenged they are. Given that one can be careless and forgetful sometimes. But their antics leave me questioning on how much they have absorbed in their 3 years or education. Unfortunately, this post is too controversial to be posted on our blog, since it would embarrass a lot of people, especially those who are supposed to be drumming information into their heads, and potentially might cause an uproar. So to play it safe, I'm reserving my comments to my own private blog, and I plead the First Amendment.
No names mentioned in the following. If you've done so, I'm gonna keep my silence in identifying you, as I think it's embarrassing enough to know you've done something to make people question your sanity already.
I remember back when I was in first year, someone (whom I thought was cute) in particular plugged in a condenser the wrong way and made me laugh hysterically, until I went to the next lab to recount the story, only to find a close friend of mine plug it in in a worse way *wink wink*. OHS should look into hyperventilating due to extreme bouts of laughter as a lab hazard. LOL
Then there were the times when I was in the hot spot, misreading journal papers and doing stupid mistakes. Of course, it would be very technical to mention, but for my credit, journal papers are meant to be tricky and misleading. But the time it took me to discover it was horrifying on my part.
Of course, of late, the mishaps has just intensified. Increased in number, and indicative of a decrease in brain cells used in the students' part. Like not putting in TAE buffer before loading a DNA ladder (even secondary should know), now the recent one was expecting ones body to have enough gravitational pull to pull DNA to oneself. Let's not forget dumping wrong waste into new bottles of chemicals and causing an explosion.
Makes you think that one day there would be a Darwin award nominee, aka do a service to Humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool" (i.e. lose the ability to reproduce either by death or sterilization in a stupid fashion). among the group. With such trends, I'm anticipating the next year or so. What do you think?
_____________________________________________________________________________
I'm sure most of my friends know that I blog on biotech issues, and most of the time, I focus on student perspectives and related matters, mainly because I'm half-way here and half-way there. Not to sound arrogant, but I have students who keep asking me about prospects etc., and I'm pretty confident in replying them, as from my vantage point, I have a good view of industry and academia, while being able to give sound advice to both on what to expect.
Now, of late I've been grumbling a lot. Why? Mainly because I'm pretty exasperated on how technically challenged our juniors are, and in effect sometimes question how mentally challenged they are. Given that one can be careless and forgetful sometimes. But their antics leave me questioning on how much they have absorbed in their 3 years or education. Unfortunately, this post is too controversial to be posted on our blog, since it would embarrass a lot of people, especially those who are supposed to be drumming information into their heads, and potentially might cause an uproar. So to play it safe, I'm reserving my comments to my own private blog, and I plead the First Amendment.
No names mentioned in the following. If you've done so, I'm gonna keep my silence in identifying you, as I think it's embarrassing enough to know you've done something to make people question your sanity already.
I remember back when I was in first year, someone (whom I thought was cute) in particular plugged in a condenser the wrong way and made me laugh hysterically, until I went to the next lab to recount the story, only to find a close friend of mine plug it in in a worse way *wink wink*. OHS should look into hyperventilating due to extreme bouts of laughter as a lab hazard. LOL
Then there were the times when I was in the hot spot, misreading journal papers and doing stupid mistakes. Of course, it would be very technical to mention, but for my credit, journal papers are meant to be tricky and misleading. But the time it took me to discover it was horrifying on my part.
Of course, of late, the mishaps has just intensified. Increased in number, and indicative of a decrease in brain cells used in the students' part. Like not putting in TAE buffer before loading a DNA ladder (even secondary should know), now the recent one was expecting ones body to have enough gravitational pull to pull DNA to oneself. Let's not forget dumping wrong waste into new bottles of chemicals and causing an explosion.
Makes you think that one day there would be a Darwin award nominee, aka do a service to Humanity by removing themselves from the gene pool" (i.e. lose the ability to reproduce either by death or sterilization in a stupid fashion). among the group. With such trends, I'm anticipating the next year or so. What do you think?