Uni rant

This is a general rant, which sort of belongs here because this is my blog and I can bloody well do with it what I like.

Anyway even though I enjoy the numerous lab sessions which are part of my course I can sadly also find them immensely annoying for quite a few reasons most of them are common sense problems.

Now I understand that I come from a very practical A-Level background due to having done Nuffield and not everyone has that advantage but surely the things which were drummed into us from the beginning until they were second nature should be obvious to people at university level.

One of those would be: In a crowded lab, don’t use lab stools they only take away much needed room, and god forbid you leave it in the middle of the aisle so everyone else can’t get through when they’re carrying chemicals or glassware.

Secondly: Don’t pipette directly from a bottle, which again should make sense because it greatly increases your likelihood of spilling things, and I’ve always been told it lets inaccuracy creep in by not necessarily  doing it at eye level and I must admit that I’ve done it a few times myself, but only while the bottle was in my hand (very small ones) and only when dealing with quantities in the 0.1-0.5mL range.

On a slightly less serious note, solvents are fun but they greatly increase my desire to purchase glow sticks during lab sessions.

MMM Glowsticks. Where’s a rave when you need one? They don’t exist because Leicestershire is too damn cold.