It's the Little Things...

So far the experience in a German lab has gone very well - if I can say that after only 4 full work days.  However, there are a number of little differences that quickly add up to make the experience somewhat unnerving and confused for me.  The biggest difference is the extreme focus on safety - the MPI Marburg keeps Ethidium Bromide in a totally separate room, and before you can even think about using it you have to go through a training course (not kidding!).  In the states we handeled it carefully, to be sure, but it was still just another chemical, albeit one we were more careful with. The handling of liquid nitrogen is also way different - they keep it outside and when you work with it you have to wear a smock, gloves, and a welding mask.  Granted, it's not the safest thing in the world, but this just seems a tad excessive to me.  The focus on safety also some unintended consequences for experimentation - a lot of the chemicals I used to extract DNA (esp. phenol:chloroform) are just not as commonly used so I have to learn entirely new procedures for things that used to be second nature to me.

There is an upside to all this change tho:  while all of their equipment might not be the best (no pippettes unless you're using micropippettes - I had to relearn the use of the graduated cylinder!) they do make up for in one major respect - they have two DNA sequencing machines.  That any lab can use at any time without so much as signing up.  In short, they may skimp on the small stuff, but when it comes down to the equipment that you need to get the job done internally they pull through.  So for the rest of this week I'll be learning how to do things the MPI Marburg way, and get back into the research mindset. 

One more matter of importance.  The passage of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act would be a major blow to the entire scientific research community - you can read comments here and here.  The passage of this would also prevent taxpayers from having access to relevant research results that they funded - so that's also pretty much a bad thing.  There are very few scientists who support this bill - it's being pushed through by publishers of journals who fear they won't be able to remain as competetive, but a little competition never hurt anybody.  If you feel strongly about this (or are indifferent but feel like being nice to the people who do feel strongly) please send this letter to your senator and congressman.