Pink in the Lab
PRATYASHA
The Serial Killer (of Lab Germs)
I wonder what the spray bottles in the lab think of me.
When I started out at the lab, I mostly observed the lab experiments from a safe distance and for the rest of the lab hours I ran errands and assisted the research scholars.
Itching to be closer to the actual action, I started arranging and rearranging everyone’s workspace, fiddling with the micropipettes and wiping down the tabletops with copious amounts of isopropyl alcohol.
There was a certain pink spray bottle that was used exclusively in the Animal Cell Culture Facility that caught my fancy. Was it the bright Barbie pink in the otherwise sterile white lab or the fact that spray bottles were the one thing that made me feel like I was doing “real” science?
Painting by Pratyasha
This one spray bottle was out of my reach because I was not yet allowed to work in the laminar flow cabinet.
About Pratyasha
Pratyasha is a visual artist and a final year student of Biotechnology at IIT Kharagpur. She combines her love for the life sciences and storytelling to create fanciful comics and paintings exploring the relationship of humans with nature.
Related Posts
The Positives in the Negative
NISHTHA
"Honestly, the real thrill of conducting research, and what makes it worth persevering despite the gruelling nature of it is that biology, to quote Barbara McClintock, “never ceases to amaze us”. While standard protocols and set pipelines are important for scientific rigour, and making research reproducible, does it leave room for creativity? Imagine the stories we miss as we disregard negative data!"
Share this page: