• Question: What happens in a science lab?

    Asked by Palmtree to Kylie, Matt, Bex, RobB, Sam on 14 Jun 2016.
    • Photo: Matt Dunn

      Matt Dunn answered on 14 Jun 2016:

      All kinds of things!

      Science labs are full of equipment and machines that can do specific tasks, like look at small objects, or separate objects, move liquids around, all kinds of things!

      In these labs, scientists use these pieces of equipment to do experiments. Others are between experiments and are doing writing instead, but the lab is usually for experimentation.

      My lab is full of fridges and freezers to keep chemicals and biological substances cold, some of them even go down to -80 degrees! There are microscopes, plastic bottles, big white machines, chairs, and benches. Pictures of some of the labs I work in can be seen on my profile too 🙂

    • Photo: Kylie Belchamber

      Kylie Belchamber answered on 15 Jun 2016:

      Good question,
      Mostly, it is lots of scientists at different levels of their careers, all working on experiments. We have undergradute students, masters students, PhD students, post-doc researchers and medical doctors working in our lab.

      We each have a lab bench, where we keep our chemicals and do our experiments. Mine is on my profile! We use lots of different machines that do things for us, such as measure how bright the colour in a solution is, or fires lasers at cells to look at what is inside them, or even as simply as wash a petri dish for us! Everyone will have their own experiment to do, and we generally do this while chatting, listening to music, or dancing around the lab!

      Because I work with cells, we also have big hoods called tissue culture hoods, that filter the air inside, so that the cells can stay sterile. We do all of our cell work in them, but they are basically the same as the lab bench, except you bring your chemicals in with you. They also let us use dangerous pathogens as well – we use bacteria like E.Coli (gives you an upset stomach), S.pneumoniae (gives you pneumonia), flu virus, common cold virus, fungus, and also types of HIV that have had the bad bits removed. Using these in the hoods reduces out chances of getting infected with them.

      I hope that answers your question – basically lots of people playing with different chemicals!

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