Although, it was my nightmare come to life in the lab. And this AFTER I weighed my tubes and balanced it all very properly. (It should be said here that the lab does not have what I would call a proper scale - as the one Justitia has as a statue - where you can weigh the tubes in the "things you place in the rotor. Here you only weight the tubes and balance them, not completely satisfying for me... the centrifuge scared person since I was an undergrad and imprinted with how bad it would be if the centrifuges were to break down since all the department used them.) And it was discovered, the "things you place in the rotor and where you place the tubes" were the ones unbalanced and probably the cause for the wobbling that lead to the centrifuge moving.
Not that it really matter to me since I still started my day with an unbalanced centrifuge that wobbled.... and there I thought I was going in for a nice, quick day before the Thanksgiving weekend.
All is well that end well though. The centrifuge was not damaged (Thankfully!) and I could get it fixed and now it is like nothing happened at all. I am happy for that (and I could solve my centrifuge things with aliquoting and using the micro centrifuge for the time being.)
For this I am more thankful than people in general would understand. Happy Thanksgiving to you all!
3 comments:
The 'things you place your tubes in' are called buckets in the UK - not sure if that's true in the US. I agree completely, an old fashined balance where you can check that each pair of buckets-and-contents balanced is incredibly useful. as a grad student they made us watch a video of the aftermath of an accident where a centrifuge had gone really wrong (in a research lab in our university): the rotor snapped and the bucket went through the wall of the centrifuge, three desks, the wall of the lab and embedded itself in the outside wall of the building on the other side of the corridor. SO scary! I drive my students mad nagging about using the scales...
Jane B: it's good to know I am not alone with the wanting of a "proper" balance ;)
And I really should have remembered bucket. Now I know!
I think in your story it's a fault of the institution since as I understood they did not provide all the necessary means for safe centrifuging (weird phrase).You as a responsible scientist were aware of balancing and took that into account. However their role is to provide clarity to avoid misunderstanding etc.
"the wall of the lab and embedded itself in the outside wall of the building on the other side of the corridor. SO scary!" This is indeed scary, but I could not stop laughing. What a nice replica, crafty painting... Unfortunately it was most probably removed. If it was not, the students would not go mad about safety remainder.
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