Life in the Lab: How many years of work are in that waste jar?

[403]

This morning, my employer discovered that her deep freezer had died, and the alarm didn't go off. The device is in the freezer room, where we don't often happen to walk past it, so we have no idea how long it's been nonfunctional - except that some of the samples had started growing mold.

So what I'm doing today? Disposing of spoiled samples, and cleaning dozens of test tubes and litle vials. And keeping my inhaler handy, since I'm allergic to mold spores.

Comments

[solarbird]

oh, shit. oh shit.

how bad is it? oh god.

this was always one of the biggest nightmares of everyone when I was doing research. everyone. grace lost 15 years of work on a side project (fortunately only a side project and not a direct grant but oh. my. god.) when somebody moved one of her drosophila breeding tanks without her permission and put it opposite a giant-ass magfield generator in the lab next door. it was so bad.

[403]

I count 85 sample vials in the wash, not including a small box of actual meteorite samples that are too valuable to toss regardless of whether anything starts to grow inside. I have no idea how much time and effort went into them. Understandably, Employerprof doesn't want to talk about it.

I looked up how long it takes for mold to go from spore to reproduction, and it takes a minimum of 36h in the fastest-growing species. Given the extent of the damage, the refridgeration was most likely off for a lot longer. Probably on the order of 3-5 days. (I didn't realize before this that mold spores can remain viable after extended periods of time at -80C.)

[zeightyfiv.livejournal.com]

Ergh! (Makes net-connected remote sensors all the more attractive... then at least you can usually tell when the sensor fails. I wonder if you can find ones appropriate for cryo-freezers...)