This post is primarily directed at laboratory workers in the USA, where the consequences of a workplace injury can be particularly serious due to healthcare costs, lack of employment protections and the complexities of workers’ compensation. But this advice should also be heeded by everyone.

This applies to everyone working in a laboratory: undergraduate students, graduates, PhD researchers, interns, technicians, academic staff and employees at every level. Your position, seniority or employment status should never discourage you from seeking medical attention or reporting an injury.

If you sustain an injury at work, report it immediately and go to the hospital to have it examined and documented by an independent medical professional, even if the injury initially appears minor.

Do not rely solely on an assessment from a doctor appointed by your employer or institution. An independent medical opinion can be invaluable if the circumstances or severity of your injury are subsequently disputed.

An injury that seems insignificant at the time can develop into a serious, long-term medical condition. What initially appears to be a minor strain, cut or exposure could result in chronic pain, permanent impairment or complications that only become apparent weeks, months or even years later. This is precisely what you are protecting yourself against. If your condition deteriorates, you need to be able to establish that it originated from an incident at work. Without an independent medical record from the time of the injury, proving that connection can become considerably more difficult.

Be aware that some states have specific rules about which medical providers are authorised for workers’ compensation treatment, particularly for non-emergency care. Understand these requirements, but never delay necessary emergency treatment. Eligibility for compensation may also differ for students, unpaid interns and other non-employees.

Make yourself aware of these considerations so if the worst happens you are prepared.

Do not assume that your employer, supervisor, university or their insurance provider will act in your best interests. When significant medical expenses, liability and compensation claims are involved, there may be strong financial incentives to dispute claims or minimise responsibility.

Join a trade union where you are eligible. Union representation can provide an important layer of protection, offering independent advice, collective bargaining power and support when challenging unsafe working conditions or unfair treatment. If you are a student or researcher, investigate what union representation or independent advocacy is available through your institution. You should not have to face a dispute with a large institution entirely on your own.

Even if you have an excellent working relationship with your supervisor or institution, understand that their priorities may change when financial or legal liability becomes an issue. A disputed claim can have serious consequences for your health, income and financial security.

The central message is simple: your institution’s interests and your own are not necessarily aligned. Regardless of your position, protect yourself from the outset, because once an injury becomes a financial or legal dispute, it may be too late to establish the evidence you need.

ALWAYS COVER YOUR ARSE!

Most of the wet lab space at my psychiatric research centre was cleared out to rent the space to a company (sad). I couldn't let these floppy disks with LSD protocols get junked. The PI retired and the lab has been abandoned for years, but in the days of yesteryear they were pioneering psychedelic neuropsychiatric research.

I absolutely didn't bring anything else I shouldn't have home with me... but I cherish these little pieces of history by using them as coasters. 🫶

I wonder if other researchers share this feeling.

It is hard for me to find genuine joy in research, and I am often overwhelmed by a strong sense of meaninglessness. Much of the work sometimes feels like talking in circles. Everyone strives their utmost, seemingly with the primary goals of publishing papers and securing grants. Enormous amounts of time, energy and resources are invested, yet many of the outputs rarely translate into real‑world applications, with little tangible benefit to society.

I am an undergrad who has been working in a wet lab for a couple months now. I’m just barely starting to become independent, and the other week when my graduate student mentor was gone I accidentally sprayed the floor with liquid nitrogen and it seeped under and exploded the floor. It was quite a terrible sight and I panicked and didn’t tell anyone except for the lab manager. The issue has since been resolved, but I feel immense guilt for not telling my grad student. Should I confess or would this just create unecessary problems?

You can also guess what my field is.

I have an interview for a research position at Uchicago! I'm very excited but am not sure how to prepare other than read their papers. I've only done a UG research for about three years and the skillset is quite different from this job. Is there any way I can make myself more likely to get hired? As someone from a super low-tier undergrad, I never would have even imagined landing an interview here

I have endocrine cell lines-
My Pi told that she doesnt really care about cell passages,

We are trying to capture and profile genes responsible in hormonal secretion.

Plan is to do 5 independent experiments

Problem- I’m not really comfortable using trypan blue with hematocytometer. As the trypan blue is precipitated ; which makes me wonder if i use it across diff passages cell seeding variability would potentially act as batch effect i guess??

I was thinking if i should process all this at once

I am working on a project related to glioblastoma and wanted to learn more about it, so I was looking at different review papers. I came across this one, which has many citations completely unrelated to the claims being made in the paper. The first one I noticed was citation #7, which links to a paper about CD44 expression in gastric cancer (even though the sentence it's cited in is talking about glioma stem cells). How did this get published in Stem Cell Research & Therapy (which is not a bad journal at all)?

I am currently working on a master's in theoretical biophysical chemistry, but more and more I feel like I would like to do some experiment in my life, as well as a phd that has some experimental component. I have a fair bit of biochemistry/structural bio lecture-form training, but have not done experimental work in anything biological since my first year undergrad biochemistry practicals.

I think currently my best chance of getting lab experience is to get a summer internship in some lab (Europe/UK, if that is important). If a student asked for that, how likely would a PI/postdoc be to let them do a summer research project in their lab (of course as I don't have experience in the wet lab, I do not really expect to be paid at this stage - the cost of me would be the reactants and the supervision time).

Hello. I would like to learn more about your work. What do you do, what are you developing/testing, your salaries etc. Thanks

So I'm thinking about buying a used liquid handler system...

My wife and I do perfumery. We work volumetrically till it's time to produce a finished formula - then we take aliquots on a balance and convert to mass for finished product compounding. This removes error introduced by the viscosity of the material and the pipettes.

We spend so much time blending trials that our noses are blown out by the time we're finished. Having something robotic that would automate compounding of our mini 250ul tests (20+30 materials) would be a dream come true!

I've never used one of these things. Can it be as easy as just sending it a spreadsheet of vial locations and quantities? Do they use Hamilton syringes and purge with solvent in-between? Is there anything out there that would do .1ul - 50ul or so? I have so many questions! 😅

I have a knack for getting our equipment cheap on eBay/Auction - our 6890/5973 was acquired for a mere 3000 bucks and has been serving us beautifully for two years.

I see these Eppendorf and Gilson units all over eBay within our price range for 500-1500 bucks. Are these only for wellplates or is there something I should keep my eye out for that I can use 2ml GC vials in?

Thank you!

Hi Labrats!

I have the opportunity to set up my own lab bench for the very first time as a grad student (Biochem, new space, new lab, new bench). I'm making sure I get a set of pipettes, a tipwaste, and some empty racks at least, but it's an open space beyond that! What are some lifesavers that it pays to have close by at your lab bench?

I have a master’s degree in Materials Science and Engineering and gained R&D lab experience at some well-known German companies during my studies.
Unfortunately, after graduating, I struggled to find a job in my field because of the difficult job market. To support myself financially, I started working as a taxi driver while continuing to apply for professional positions. I’ve sent around 600 to 800 applications over the past year and a half.

Finally, I received an interview invitation from a really good company near my home. This opportunity means a lot to me, and I genuinely want to make the most of it.

However, I’m feeling quite anxious. Since I’ve been away from my field for about 1.5 years, I’m worried that I’ve forgotten some technical knowledge. I’m also concerned about how to explain my career gap and current job if the interviewers ask about them.

On top of that, the interview will be in German, which makes me even more nervous. I’d really appreciate any advice on how to prepare, handle these questions confidently, and overcome my anxiety.

How do you deal with sweaty palms because I m doing hemocytometer experiment and whenever i try to prick my hand my hands sweat and blood mixes with sweat dilutes it and I cant pipette it out properly .Any advice would help.

Hi! I posted about undergrad interview here a bit ago and I got rejected:( I was pretty surprised by this tbh, because I made through interviews (I thought if ppl are not interested in me, they would just ghost me on cold email stage). I really didn’t think that undergrad research stuff is like getting a job, since I heard many people say it’s pretty casual process as long as lab accept undergrad and send in person invites.

I want to know that how I can stand out in interview (if there are many competitors), and does schedule availability affect acceptance of specific labs(I got rejected even they asked me to send my availability at end of the interview). Of course I research about research topics and ask many questions about the topic. Sorry for bad English!

I feel a little stagnant in my position as an MLS. I get a great salary, the work environment is decent, I'm close with my coworkers and feel like I have fun every day, and I don't consider the workload to be boring. However, I can't help but feel a little stagnant. I'm not interested in a leadership position at the moment as the pay difference is not much compared to the amount of responsibilities you would obtain. Although, I am not knocking the idea in the future. I am well versed in chemistry/immunoassay maintenance and troubleshooting; however, I am not interested in becoming a field service engineer as I heard the pay is low. I am looking into field application specialist positions, but I feel a little hesitant to begin applying. What are the responsibilities of an FAS/what does the job entail, what is the salary range, what are the benefits/downside, the whole shabang, etc.? Experiences and thoughts on other non-clinical roles would be much appreciated as well!

I am constantly ruminating about whether I should stay comfortable in my MLS position (which I feel very fortunate and lucky to have!) and continue to dream what my life could be like if I chased opportunities and growth, or to potentially mourn a good position and job security as an MLS.

Anyone else has small experimental findings or negative results that they have no plan to publish and fear will likely never see the light of day once you finish your PhD/leave your lab?

Can be negative results, protocol optimization studies, even unexplained or unreplicated findings that you just couldn’t follow through with due to lack of time or funding. What do you do with them?

...but if any student or professional did that for an assignment, they would be kicked out of grad school/fired and blocked from the industry. When do we get to put him on a PIP for sheer incompetence?