Organize, Organize, Organize

Day Eleven - June 22

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Morning Duties

This morning the first thing on my to do list, as always, was to go in and check the calibration of the balance and each of the pipettes. Since I was not alone in the IC lab today I did not have to check the results from yesterday's run of the IC machine, so I just went about vialing up the charcoal tube samples that were left overnight to finish reacting.

Making a More Efficient Lab

After lunch, we were able to put all of the tube samples onto the machine, and already had enough vials prepped for the next few days, so I set myself the task of organizing the IC lab. A clean and organized area is critical for an efficient lab. IC responsibilities only recently shifted to Raj after the departure of a different staff member, so there were lots of things out of place or in a place that did not feel natural to us. My main goal was to get rid of clutter: old samples that need disposal, paperwork that is no longer needed, open/contaminated plasticware, etc. I also wanted to make things we use frequently more accessible and things we use less frequently in the harder to reach cabinets.

This task took a lot longer than anticipated, so it was all I did until the end of the day. After I finished, everything looked a lot more put together, and will hopefully make our tasks run a lot more smoothly.