Inside & Outside the Laboratory
MULTIPLE
As the above quotes from the Biotales participants show, laboratories are not easy places to be in. This led us to ask:
What happens to a person when they enter the laboratory?
In a warm up activity which we called “You in your Research”, we asked participants to scribble on sticky notes who they are inside and outside the laboratory, and what aspect of the person they are changes when they walk into a laboratory.
In the visuals below, we have clustered the participants' sticky notes around three hybrid human figures consisting of the’ inside lab’ and the ‘outside lab’ halves sutured together.
Responses from Biotales Workshop 1
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Sprays IPA every 10 seconds
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Arranges everyone's work space
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Throws a fit if the micropipettes are not aligned horizontally in increasing order of volume
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Eats whatever, wherever
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Handwashing optional
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Throws stuff around the room and it stays where it lands
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Learning to be more careful with handling lab stuff, especially the glasswares
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Critical
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Excited and happy and enjoying my time
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Lab coat ON
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Teacher mode ON
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Very messy person
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Intuitive, on the go
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Waiting to go back to the lab
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Lab work
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Watch YouTube for some time
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Write papers and reports
I eat, play and sleep.
Luckily, my labmates are also my close friends so I do hang out with them outside lab too but inside the lab our conversations are mostly related to science.
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Other than labmates, I have other friends who are my confidants so I get to rant about my day to them. I am very rant-y outside my lab.
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Labmates outside the lab, we talk about everything outside the box
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Focused
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Irritated if someone moves my equipment around
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A perfectionist
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"Maybe learn how to do an Excel sheet properly first?"
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Very relaxed
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Excited about the day
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Apprehensive about experiments
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"The world is my oyster! I can do anything!"
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Strict
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Focused
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Productivity 100%
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OCD
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Clumsy
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OCD
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Not so strict
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Forgetful
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Filter out the brightness in personhood.
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Mindful of the tongue.
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Logic based operation.
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Will note down details that need retrieval later in a semi-organised manner.
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Bright shiny eyes filled with curiosity and love.
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Curt and straightforward.
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Intuition based operation.
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Hardly records or remembers details
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Feel like Rajanikant walking away from disaster (lab)
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Informal clothing and demeanour
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Talking to myself, and to every living and non-living entity around
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Won't track time unless forced to
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Still prefer to bump into wild animal or bird rather than human
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Pray that the day never ends, also pray that equipment work properly, hoping phone does not get signal at all
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Organised
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Serious as soon as the lab door opens
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Closes eyes for prayer that work gets over today itself, also prays that work is not too taxing or boring,
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Won't talk to others unless forced, tracks time like its my last
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Prefer to meet stray animals or lab animals instead of humans
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Reduce eye contact, focus is only on my table
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Waiting for friend to call so that I can get out
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Fun-loving, enjoys music jamming with my peeps, talkative, shares opinions
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Trying not to think about lab stuff, but its tough to shut as its the same mind
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Looking for some occasions so that I can visit my family more often
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Serious, less talking if seniors and supervisor around.
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Luckily juniors are really nice, can speak up my mind in-front of them
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Trying to multitask, train interns,
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Overthinking on what to do next
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Speak my mind always
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Chill, dude
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Flustered MAX when/if PI calls
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Physically more free
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Friends & family motivate me
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Worrying if there's an ongoing experiment or upcoming meetings and tasks.
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Meets up with friends if possible.
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Chats with lab members regarding troubleshooting experiments etc.
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Rushing and concerned to finish all the experiments planned for the day
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Keep a check on mouse (though it is very tiring).
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Out of sight, out of mind.
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I try to keep all the work related things inside the lab, but many times, those things accompany me till the end of the day or till it gets sorted.
By the end of the day, I plan to do extra-curricular activities, groom myself, clean my room (Big Plans)
All these Big plans fail immediately I step out of lab, because I am very tired and I just want to rest.
More streamlined way of thinking, Feeling of being in-charge
Many thoughts, ideas
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Speak my mind lesser
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Acting on the clock
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Flustered if family calls
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Restricted by PPE
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Catastrophising the future
I enter at 8 am, and I don't realise when it is already 8: 30 pm and it is night already, and still my work or the things I planned to SURELY FINISH are still PENDING.
Hoping to return today by 5:00 pm
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A bit concerned about the PhD journey
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Excited to go all in to the readings
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Regularly trying to map the progress made
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Easily distracted by the work others are doing
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This life is also worth pursuing.
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Carefree
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Forget work
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Mingle with people, listen to others
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Life is here
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More focused and a no-non-sense approach.
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Focused on the task at hand, and concentration channeled through the power of music.
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Organised and detailed in observations and note-taking.
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Better disciplined and achieve better time-management.
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Relatively more easy-going, jovial and 'chill'.
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Easily distracted and side-tracked by all the 'shiny' things.
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Less attention and concern on one's surroundings.
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Less observant, in general.
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Relatively more carefree and not as disciplined with one's daily routine
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More anxious about upcoming/ongoing experiments.
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Trying to multitask sometimes.
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Mostly searching for reagents, availability of apparatus or machines needed.
Responses from Biotales Workshop 2
Responses from Biotales Workshop 3
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Unfiltered
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Risk aware
Imposter
Patient
Sad
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Serious
Programmed
Methodical
Prepared
Competent
Hiding emotions
Dedicated
Technical
Outspoken
Well-read
Pushing to maximum capacity
Composed and controlled self
Logical
CR
Playful inside and outside, and very serious about the play
Could do better
Analytical
Stringent
Thorough
Try to be precise and correct if others are wrong scientifically
Fake
Self -doubt
Cautious
Approachable
Quiet weirdo
Observer
Non-complainer
Make sure to consult others to make sure I am not making any errors
Overthinker
Circumstantial friends
Taking responsibility
Quality
Challenging constantly
Like working alone to avoid disturbances and other people
Available
Competitive
Supportive
Dependable
Focussed
Poet Teacher
Boring
Creative
Very shy to speak to strangers
Stuck-up
Hyderabadi
Cheerful
Loner
No people-pleasing
Atypical
Emotional
True self
Take a chill pill
Storyteller
Ghar ka bada beta
Friend
Writer
Emotional support
Independent
Outgoing
Wild
Not very different inside and outside
Master's student
Competent
Human beyond a student
Contemporary history enthusiast
Sad
Below, we have a few articles by Biotales participants that directly speak of the impact of the laboratory on the self, either in the form of self portraits, or in the form of specific experiences that make the person question whether they have a self outside of the lab, or having to juggle various roles within and outside the laboratory, or thinking about/deciding to move away physically away from it, but still engage with it in creative ways.
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The Intern(al) Monologue
IPSHITA
"Hi everyone, my name’s Ipshita, Biotales’ visual design and illustration intern! You’ve probably seen my name in the credits of a few posts, either under some illustrations or the recent Biotales posters. It’s about due time I introduce myself (further than whatever is on the About page, anyway). So here it is!"
Inside & Outside the Laboratory
MULTIPLE
"What happens to a person inside a laboratory? In a warm up activity which we called “You in your research”, we asked participants to scribble on sticky notes who they are inside and outside the laboratory, and what aspect of the person they are changes when they walk into a laboratory.
In the visuals in this post, we have clustered the participants' sticky notes around three hybrid human figures consisting of the’ Inside the Lab’ and the ‘Outside the Lab’ halves sutured together."
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