Occasionally, I can be a bit territorial in the lab. I don't walk around my bench urinating or anything like that. However, I do get rather annoyed at certain people when they take things off of my bench and do not put them back.
Imagine this scenario: I'm working on a multi-day, time sensitive protocol. This protocol requires many different solutions. So I do what any good grad student would do, I make them up the day before. I, also, gather up all the various accouterment I need. That way I have everything that I need at my fingertips, when I need it. Now, did I mention that this protocol is time sensitive? That means that when X is finished, Y needs to be added right away. I'm merrily working away, pondering the data that this experiment may give me. My timer beeps and I go to add reagent Y. I reach up to grab it off of my shelf and it's not there! I look on my bench, it's not there I either. I frantically look around the lab. There it is. It's sitting on Undergrad's bench. I snatch it and add it to my experiment. It's a finicky little experiment that if you let go just a minute past, it's ruined.
This happened all day. I'd go to grab my pipet gun and, lo and behold, it's not where I left it, you know, on my bench. I'd look around and someone would have "borrowed" it. It got to the point to where, when someone would approach my bench, I'd start to glower threateningly. Heaven help them if they reached to grab something off my bench. I'd pounce and demand that it would be returned immediately after the borrower had finished. I wanted it returned to the exact same spot. Unharmed. (This last bit I had to add on when Undergrad spilled the bottle, cracking the neck a bit, holding one of my solutions.) I'm sorely tempted to put a sign on my bench reading, "Trespassers will be shot on sight."* But I don't own a gun. Sigh.
*I kid, I kid. I'd amend it to have acid spilled on them, anyhow. **
**Still kidding. But, seriously, don't "borrow" my stuff.Labels: Grad School