27 things you should pay attention to in the laboratory
Always remember to develop good habits in the laboratory, and do experiments conscientiously and steadily. Only by doing more experiments can people gain a deeper understanding of this knowledge and improve their ability to solve practical problems.
- Refer to this article. Think twice before the experiment, don’t rush to do it, understand the objectives of the experiment, design the experiment plan, run the entire experiment process in your head, try to succeed once, pay attention to experimental details, and make every effort to do well;
- Do a pilot experiment in advance for a more complex one. Check each step to indicate completion, and record the step at the same time. At the end of the stage, go back and check if there is any error;
- Don’t think about other things when doing experiments, and don’t do experiments when you think about other things;
- Discuss your experiments with other senior lab members. Many things are often inspired by the discussion. This is almost the fastest way to improve;
- Pay attention to the safety of others, yourself and the laboratory;
- Maintain good interpersonal relationships with other lab members;
- Don’t use other people’s reagents without receiving permission;
- Minimize distractions that may cause errors in the middle of experiments such as answering phone calls and texting messages while pipetting;
- A good memory is not as good as a bad pen. At the end of each experiment, make a record in time and don’t delay;
- Try to finish your experiments on the same day if possible and do not procrastinate;
- It is best to prepare the reagents by yourself, and keep the reagents you use separately, record the batch number of the reagents, etc. The first time you prepare reagents to share with others, you need to perform quality inspection, and indicate the time and who prepared them;
- Mix it well before adding the reagent to avoid concentration gradient after storage for a long time;
- Everything must be marked with the date, name, concentration, etc. immediately;
- Put away reagents when you finish using them;
- Be sure to make a mark on the microcentrifuge tubes and write the date. You can add a piece of label paper for important things. Repeated freezing and thawing in the refrigerator will make the handwriting blurred. You can use scotch tape to stick the outside of the word at the same time. There should be a detailed record of the situation in the logbook;
- Wear gloves when you touch the source of pollution, take them off when you leave, don’t run around with gloves on, and absolutely avoid cross-contamination;
- Do not hold glassware with wet hands to avoid slipping off;
- Dispose of trash in time and tidy up the bench, etc., arrange time reasonably to improve the efficiency of the experiment, and be good at making time difference, for example: you can tidy up the bench during centrifugation;
- Take the pipette tip off the pipette immediately after aspirating, so as not to pick up another reagent when busy;
- After the pipette is used up, it should be returned to the largest measurement position to prevent the spring from losing its elasticity over time;
- When using a pipette, be sure to aspirate gently, especially a large-range pipette, so as not to suck into the pipette, which will easily contaminate the pipette and easily contaminate future experiments;
- After using glassware, clean them in time, dry them over the sink, and transfer them to designated cabinets or shelves;
- Before leaving the laboratory or entering the laboratory, pay attention to whether the water and electricity are turned off;
- After finishing the experiment, clean up the experiment bench, return the chemicals/reagents, and return the instruments;
- Remember to turn off the water bath, heat block, and other electrical appliances when you finish the experiment each time;
- Check freezer doors are closed and locked with the plastic straps;
- Finally, after doing the experiment, wash your hands and pay attention to hygiene.