Before editing science, I worked in academic scientific laboratories. I did so for about eight years (not including my graduate studies).

While I learned many techniques and constructive behaviors from my fellow technicians, postdocs, and supervisors, I also learned some actions to avoid from some of them (yes, I have actually observed most of the following offenses made by professional lab staff). If you work in a scientific laboratory or plan to in the future, you may wish to take note of these so that you do not put yourself in a dangerous or inappropriate situation.

Never eat, drink, or chew gum in a lab. This is an obvious one. If you put something in your mouth, you are most likely ingesting something that has been contaminated with chemicals, bacteria, or something worse. Imagine ingesting phenol, methanol, or E. coli. That is what you risk if you do this.

Never wear sandals or flip-flops in a lab. Things often get dripped and spilled on the floor during procedures, and you don’t want caustic or biohazardous solutions on your feet. Even worse would be if you were holding a cryostat blade, for example, and dropped that on your foot. Save that footwear for the beach or pool.

Never do your taxes at your desk in a lab. This is just plain inappropriate. Set aside time to do them at home. I don’t care if it is April 14^th. If it is that late, shame on you.

Never play on your phone at your desk in a lab. People will believe you are not serious about your work if you do. It’s better to keep your phone in a drawer in your desk (crack the drawer open a bit so you can hear the phone ring).

And finally…

If you must smoke or vape, go outside to a designated area. Don’t even think of lighting a cigarette with all of the flammable chemicals that are used and stored in a lab.

If you have worked in labs, what other “no-no’s” can you think of?

We hear a lot of talk about diversity in STEM these days and about how we need to have more of it.

I couldn’t agree more.

Racial and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in science and math fields, and we need to do more to include them. However…

…there exists another minority that is underrepresented in STEM. I’m talking about people with physical disabilities. (Those with other kinds of disabilities are affected by this exclusion as well, but for the purposes of this post, I will focus on physical disabilities.)

I have mild, although real and diagnosed, cerebral palsy (CP), which affects the coordination in my small muscles, as well as my walking. This has undoubtedly affected my performance in the biological research laboratory. To wit…

I was bullied repeatedly and ultimately fired from a job in an academic research lab where my CP would not allow me to put together small devices and manipulate tiny tubes in order to perform a crucial experiment. My CP also impeded my ability to prepare and isolate plasmid DNA. “We only have a year and a half left on our grant. Do you want a job in a year and a half?” I was told, proving that in some labs, the grants are infinitely more important than the employees.

I later had a position in a lab at a different institution in which I had to work with live mice. This work included restraining the mice and snipping off the ends of their tails with special scissors (yes, cruelty is the norm in some undertakings). Once again, my CP did not allow my hands to cooperate no matter how hard I tried, and I was fired from this job as well. My principal investigator cited my lack of dexterity as one of the main reasons for my dismissal.

I never worked in an industry lab. I took a few courses at the local community college which taught how to do cell culture, chromatography, and other procedures important to the industry. Although I did well on the exams, my lab performance was of concern to the instructor, who believed that I worked too slowly. And my instructor was right.

Is anyone willing to make a reasonable accommodation for a worker who needs to be more deliberate and careful in their work in order to do a good job?

If you have a physical disability and work in STEM, please let me hear from you. Are you being treated fairly?

Last week this blog focused on those who keep live animals in their workplace offices. If doing so helps you work more efficiently, I say go for it.

If I kept live animals in my workspace, I personally would find them distracting—even an aquarium full of fish swimming about. However, I do not want my office space to be sterile and devoid of life (or anything that resembles life), either.

This is why I have stuffed animals in my office space.

I do not have a whole menagerie similar to what a little girl might have in her bedroom. I only have three stuffed animals at the moment. Please allow me to introduce you to each of them.

First, there is the Maryland Quarter Bear. For those of you unfamiliar with Quarter Bears, they came out around the turn of the millennium, when the 50 state quarters were being minted and distributed. Each little teddy bear represents a U.S. state, is a different color, and has a little pocket for holding the quarter that represents its state. Since I was born, was raised, and currently live in Maryland, I purchased the Maryland bear decades ago and inserted a Maryland quarter, with the State House design visible, into its pocket. It is fuzzy, black in color, and has the iconic Maryland flag embroidered on its back. Looking at it gives me a sense of state pride.

Then there is Roary, who is a Beanie Baby lion. Remember the Beanie Baby craze of the 1990s? I did not rush out and buy all of them (some of them sold for outrageous prices), but I told myself that I had to have just one. I chose Roary because the lion is my favorite animal, and I paid a reasonable price for him. Sometimes I have to laugh at myself when I look at him because he reminds me of how I almost got sucked into the Beanie Baby fad (or perhaps I did get sucked into it).

Last, but not least, there is Garfield. Yes, as in the famous orange cat. He has been my favorite comic strip character since I was eight years old, and I collect all kinds of items with his likeness. (I even have a cloth Garfield mask, which was made for and worn during the COVID-19 pandemic.) The stuffed Garfield on my bookshelf wears a chef’s hat and an apron that reads, “I LOVE LASAGNA!” I obtained it in a Howard Johnson’s restaurant in Lake George, New York when I was about nine.

Do you have (or do you admit to having) stuffed animals in your workspace? What are they?