coonskee Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 Someone in my lab keeps stealing my agarose gel. Everyone here uses 2% - so I started labeling mine 1%. still being taken. Anyone have any ideas of how I can mess with one bottle of gel so that people stop taking my s***? I've asked everyone in the lab if they use my gel and no one will fess up!
milam1186 Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 Enact a lab policy in which you make more gel when you use it all? That's how it works in mine.
virion Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 (edited) Make it 0.1% or even 0%. As they're waiting indefinitely for that to solidify, perhaps they will consider the benefits of heating their own agarose. Hilariously passive aggressive notes are another option. Edited February 28, 2012 by virion
coonskee Posted February 28, 2012 Author Posted February 28, 2012 Well everyone has their own individual bottles here - you microwave them and then keep them in an oven (so I'll make 800 mls at once and use those over the course of a week or two). Came upon the fact that if you make agarose with water, it'll melt when a charge is applied to it..... mwahahahahahahahaha.
kgumps2012 Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 In our lab we have a policy where you just make your own solid gel when you need one. Always fresh, always yours.
aberrant Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 make your gels without labeling it. i dare anyone would use it for their research
Eigen Posted February 28, 2012 Posted February 28, 2012 I don't have problems with people taking my stock solutions (by and large), I have problems with them taking pipettes. I have mine wrapped in neon green tape and labeled in huge letters, and still half of the mornings when I walk into my lab, they're missing. And then I'll have to take an hour to find them, and they'll be scattered to various rooms throughout the department, shared instrument rooms, etc. That and my quartz cuvettes. Worse, people have started leaving solutions in the cuvettes and hiding them, instead of cleaning them and returning them. Ruined $600 cuvettes are no fun. No fun at all.
aberrant Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I don't have problems with people taking my stock solutions (by and large), I have problems with them taking pipettes. I have mine wrapped in neon green tape and labeled in huge letters, and still half of the mornings when I walk into my lab, they're missing. And then I'll have to take an hour to find them, and they'll be scattered to various rooms throughout the department, shared instrument rooms, etc. That and my quartz cuvettes. Worse, people have started leaving solutions in the cuvettes and hiding them, instead of cleaning them and returning them. Ruined $600 cuvettes are no fun. No fun at all. are there any undergrads working in your lab? just curious.
Eigen Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 There are two, but both work under me, and I know neither of them are responsible for my problems. Mostly, because I keep a pretty close eye on them when they're here, and have been very clear about how they're supposed to leave a workspace when they're finished.
Krypton Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I use labels like "Stuff that probably tastes bad" for things I don't want stolen. Sounds like people are either savvy to the fact that the lab only ever uses 2% agarose, or they think 1% agarose will work just as well, so mislabeling doesn't help! Might as well just take the route of keeping your gel hidden! Krypton 1
kgumps2012 Posted February 29, 2012 Posted February 29, 2012 I don't have problems with people taking my stock solutions (by and large), I have problems with them taking pipettes. I have mine wrapped in neon green tape and labeled in huge letters, and still half of the mornings when I walk into my lab, they're missing. And then I'll have to take an hour to find them, and they'll be scattered to various rooms throughout the department, shared instrument rooms, etc. That and my quartz cuvettes. Worse, people have started leaving solutions in the cuvettes and hiding them, instead of cleaning them and returning them. Ruined $600 cuvettes are no fun. No fun at all. ugh i know what you mean about people taking your pipettes. when my pipettes and tips go missing i go a little crazy (internally of course). Also when people needlessly use 10X the number of things they need wasting lab money and I am always replacing stuff such as our 5mL pipettes.
Xanthan Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 Also when people needlessly use 10X the number of things they need wasting lab money and I am always replacing stuff such as our 5mL pipettes. I actually have the opposite complaint. In the grand scheme of things, pipettes are pretty cheap. Maybe because I'm doing a lot of bacterial work, but I'm very serious about contamination (biological and chemical). I die a little inside when I see someone pull from a bottle of media, set the pipette down on the bench, and then PULL AGAIN. (It's like they said on Seinfeld: "You don't double dip. You take one dip, and end it.") My biggest pet peeve is people who don't know how to clean properly. They spray the hood down with ethanol. Good. Then they wipe it with a non sterile paper towel. Congratulations, it's not sterile anymore!
Eigen Posted March 1, 2012 Posted March 1, 2012 I think we're talking about different types of pipettes. I completely agree about the disposable variety- I often consider that false savings, for the very reason you mention. I was talking about my good set of micro pipettes that I keep clean and calibrated.
Genomic Repairman Posted March 7, 2012 Posted March 7, 2012 pee in it. And make a fresh gel damnit, it only takes minutes. I cast mine in the cold room so they set up quicker.
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