Submitted 18 hours ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://mander.xyz/pictrs/image/5dd0d9ba-7d7f-4592-a53b-ea5a952b0714.png
Are there any lab scientists that don’t hate their pipettes? My wife used to complain constantly about getting cramps from those things, especially those multi-drop dispensers.
Her explanation was always that biotechs can afford robots to do the pipetting but academia is budget constrained and grad students are (were) cheaper than robots.
I really enjoyed it. I haven’t used a pipette in a few years because most of my focus is more computery nowadays, but I really miss the zen of pipetting. My arms did ache after a long day in the lab, but I sort of liked that. I think it stems from a deeply silly part of me that enjoyed how sciencey I felt when using a pipette.
It helped that when I first started my undergrad studies, I seemed to be much better at it than many of my peers — a boon which was compounded by being good at being systematic in a manner that caused me to make fewer mistakes and thus finish labs sooner, despite taking longer to get started doing the actual wet lab work.
I especially liked the practicals where we used a spectrophotometer to measure the initial rate of an enzyme catalysed reaction. Pre cutting out squares of parafilm for mixing the cuvette, organising my workspace so everything was in arm’s reach and unlikely to be knocked over during the rush stage, the stressful tension of carefully adding reaction reagents (sans enzyme) to the cuvettes, ensuring I wouldn’t get them mixed up — it felt like gearing up for a difficult boss fight in a video game. All culminating in a frantic flurry to perform efficiently once I set the reaction going and had to start taking measurements. If a protocol required us to take another spectrophotometric measurement of each cuvette 2 minutes after the initial one, I could just do it one at a time, and twiddle my thumbs waiting. That would be far too simple however, and I relished the challenge of taking the initial readings of another few cuvettes in that time, until I would have liked 4 or 5 going at once. If I misjudged my abilities, I’d end up not taking the second reading of the first cuvette in time and I’d likely need to prepare a replacement sample for the one I’d botched up. It was the kind of low stakes, high intensity pressure that I live for.
Even before I stopped doing wet labs, I never did as much fun pipetting as I did during undergrad labs (which makes sense, given that they’re drilling you with the skills), but I always look back fondly on those labs.
Except when I got one of the shit pipettes. They did the job, but they were not nice to use and it’d be enough to make me grumpy for the whole day.
… Did this dude groom his pipette?
He clearly raised it from birth.
Yep I vibe with this. I remember when I had a whole array of micropipettes. It was the best.
Like a dispensing god
If he truly loved it he would take off the tip and rest it flat on the pillow. I’m undecided as to whether the tip or head should be mechanically unstressed (in the current sleeping position the tip is the only contact point on the bed, supporting much of its weight.
The bed is a soft material, not a hard plane. We also can not see the angle or gap of the pillow. Your assumption is flawed, maybe he really does love it.
Which size though? 200-1000, 20-200? 2-20? 1-10? Don’t tell me it is 0.1-2.5!
Screw the size, tell me the girth
10uL to 10mL
If he cared about accuracy, he wouldn’t use an autopipette
Mine’s 20-200. Had a 1-10, 20-200, and 200-1000, but my 20-200 always gave me the best consistency. What’s yours?
I liked the 20-200 also.
bigboitricky@lemmy.world 16 hours ago
NGL I first thought these were heroin needles until I saw where I was.
Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 3 hours ago
I was about to send this to my diabetic buddy
ShaggySnacks@lemmy.myserv.one 3 hours ago
My head cannon is that is heroin needles. The OP was just lost when posting the comic or c/science_memes really loves their heroin.
Big_Boss_77@lemmynsfw.com 14 hours ago
Thought it eas a freaking tattoo gun…
chuckleslord@lemmy.world 7 hours ago
Stim pack. Does that make sense? No. Does that matter? Apparently not