April Fool's day in the Lab

The BBQ Pit
1

So today is april fools day.

Last night at 11:23 pm I came to work.

Why you ask?

To protect myself.

I ‘safety sealed’ the drawers at my lab bench. So I know if someone opened them.

I hid my open box of gloves.

I poured out all my open bottles of reagents and I neatly stacked my paper work.

I locked all of the more amusing chemical compounds up and took the key home with me.
Why? WHY YOU ASK!

I’m NOT INSANE! I’m PROTECTING MYSELF!
The C02 traps were created and frozen down. When everyone breaks for lunch I’ll hide them around the lab.

Someone, who will remain nameless already remove the internal mechanism from my P20 micropipette.

The joke’s on them! I took my boss’s pipetters and hid mine. Mine are all fully functional and have all their pieces. Hehe in 2 hrs my boss will found out his pipetter doesn’t work… About the same time the person who sabatoged mine will be in the lab finishing their western blot.

The springy snake hidden in my box of index cards with purchase information on them has been relocated.

The box of kimwipes that had what looks like 100g of skim milk powder dumped in em has been switched with the box of kimwipes the person who I saw open the box of skim milk powder uses for tissues in their office.

And the rubber cockroach on a string under my moniter… well lets just say a simple spring device will make the next person who opens the freezer have a suprise.
FEAR ME! For I AM YOUR APRIL FOOL’S GOD!

2

Somehow the idea of April Fool’s pranks in a chemical or biology lab makes me feel not very good.
You folks aren’t the ones responsible for running my medical tests, are you? I don’t want to do six weeks of medication because of excessive talcum powder in my urine.

3

We’re a research lab. And we don’t do anything the is dangerous or ruins expensive reagents.

Usually it’s simple things like replacing PBS with water so cells explode from osmotic pressure, or putting funky indicator dyes in media.

Or the C02 traps :smiley:

4

It’s worse Cal. He works with deadly viruses.

Lord help us all.

5

Yeah, back when I worked in the chemlab I used to substitute hydrofluoric acid for water in the emergency eye wash on April Fool’s Day.

Fortunately, nobody ever fell for that trick. :rolleyes:

6

CRorex, some of us need more exposition to understand all the jokes.

What is a CO2 trap?
Will something bad happen to the prankster with the western blot?
What is the PBS to which you refer?

7

I’m calling PETA!

8

The western blot?

Hehe… The person who is working on the western blot is probably the same person who removed the piston mechanism from the P20 pipette I had on my bench space. I know my boss will be in the lab doing something in around 1hr and 40 min. The same time the person working on the western will be in the lab for hour long block of time.

I hid my pipettes and took my boss’s and put them where I normally keep mine. So the missing mechanism was taken from my boss’s pipettes.

I go into the lab and pipette something with my p20 when I see my boss starting to use his pipettes. The person who THOUGHT they sabatoged my pipette will get ready for a laugh but that will turn to horror as they realize I oneupped them :smiley:

As for the PBS that’s phosphate buffered saline… it’s basically salt water.

It has the same solute concentration as the cells we grow in culture.

It takes 3 seconds to figure out if your PBS has been replaced by water. It’s clear and there are some pH indicator dyes you can add that turn funny colours you can add to it.

C02 traps HEHEHEHEHE

Take 1 microfuge tube 2.0mL volume.

Add one small piece of dry ice.

Place in one latex glove.

Tie off the end, and seal by melting.

Toss it in the -80 freezer.

15 min before someone will be in the lab you hide it under some papers.

The glove warms up, the C02 melts and turns to gas, the lid of the microfuge tube pops open with a muffled sound (like pulling out a wine cork only less audible) then the glove starts to expand.

If you do it JUST right, there will be a soft POP followed by the glove suddenly expanding to about 50% of what it would be like if someone was wearing it.

So suddenly the stuff it’s hidden under moves and this hand appears.

9

So, this would be one extra reason that we should stay on your good side?

:wink:

10

gah

Someone just got me :frowning:

I was taking a sample of electrocompetent bacteria – heating a metal innoculation hoop until it’s redhot then plunging it into the frozen bacteria.

The bastard swapped the bacteria sample with some frozen 100% ethanol with Yeast Extract in it :stuck_out_tongue:

It looked exactly the same except the tube caught fire.

Oh well, 40 uL of ethanol down the drain.

11

we don’t put up with that in our lab. Unless people are looking to get fired.

12

Well, I’m on your side here, just on GP.

But it IS nice to know you’re not omnipotent.

13

Man I bet that stunk!

Enjoy,
Steven

14

What state is CRorex’s lab in? I’m scared.

Cheers Bippy

Kudos to CRorex if this is an April fool on us.

15

All Quiet On The Western Blot.

16

DAMNIT it not even two hours.

17

Oh, please tell me the glove thing is real! I just spent a solid minute laughing my ass off and wondering if I could find a way for my friends in the lab downstairs to help me accomplish something like that on my last day here.

I really wish today could have been my last day. I would have loved to have just booby-trapped the hell out of this place and walked out.

18

DAMNIT it not even two hours.

19

Damnit it? Gotcha ya!

20

I’m glad I’m off today. Of course, I DO work in a medical lab, where pranks of this sort would be even more severely frowned upon.

CO2 bombs are fun.