I started working in a biology lab about a year ago and realized quite a few things while I learnt the ropes. Here they are in no particular order. You go through a lot of pipette tips and latex gloves thereby generating a lot of non-biodegradable waste. So yeah, research does not always help the world, sometimes it just generates new trash. You run out of good clothes because almost all of them have bleach stains on them. And of course, that's because you're too lazy to put on a lab coat. You develop a bit of an OCD coz' you're constantly worried that you didn't turn on the shaker, or left your bacteria plate in the incubator for too long or left the gas on, etc. I can actually list a whole page of stuff I worry about long after I've left for home. :P Bacterial contamination can ruin your experiments and make you lose a day and sometimes more. Tiny tubes of 40 micro-liters of enzyme cost over USD 200. That sure seems like a lot of money! You have to ...
You will find nothing of value here. This is just a collection of discrete random thoughts and incidents.