Things that seem funny now probably didn’t seem that funny at the time. My all time favourites are:
– I get to call myself a lizard gynaecologist (you might need to look that word up!)
– I’ve had chemicals explode in the lab (not funny at the time, but funny when I look back now)
– When I go to collect lizards, people ask me what I’m doing a lot. Sometimes people get very angry because they think I’m stealing lizards illegally to sell as pets (I always get permission before I collect lizards). It’s often easier to just hide in the bushes than answer all their questions though – I’m sure some people think I’m just some crazy lady hiding in the bushes with a big long pole!
– My boyfriend did his PhD on sea snails. One time I had to help him record how long snails could hang on to the rocks when you try to pull them off (it’s a really long time, so you have to bring a book to read!). Then a freak wave washed over all the electrical equipment we were using and I got an electric shock (again, funny in hindsight, not so much at the time!)
In America I shared a lab with someone called Kris. One time she was doing an experiment and opened up a VERY old bottle of a chemical and was trying to work out whether the chemical was OK or whether it had gone off. At the time, I was on the phone in the lab. I’d been on the phone for about an hour trying to sort out something that was really irritating to do with my bank. I had been on hold for about 20 minutes, listening to the music they were playing me. I was really cross, waiting for the bank guy. I thought “there is no way I am hanging up the phone now – I’m going to see this through to the end.” As I was sitting there, Kris tipped up the bottle of the chemical. A single drop fell out onto a piece of paper, and the paper burst into flames. It was sensational. I rushed over to try to help her put the fire out, and I didn’t hang up the phone. I kind of wedged the phone next to my ear and helped her put out the flames. Kris said “I can’t BELIEVE you didn’t hang up the phone – there was a FIRE.” But it was fine. It’s called “multitasking.” I couldn’t stop laughing when the bank person came back on the line.
Ok, well I can’t beat those answers! I don’t remember anything specifically hilarious but I have made a few mistakes that other people in the Lab find funny. It wasn’t funny for me at the time and I don’t know that you would see the humour either!
We do have a lot of good conversations in the Lab though and some of them are hilarious. Yesterday we were talking about chimps taking over the world and how long it would take before you decided to cut your own arm off (like in the movie ‘128 hours’. Maybe not funny, but interesting.
– In a lab once after I had finished with a bucket of fine clay and water, I managed to trip over the knee high white bucket sending mud all over the lab, (including the ceiling), and over myself. Everyone in the lab came running at my scream as I fell and were laughing when they all rocked up at the doorway. This was thankfully the days before phones came with cameras and before facebook. It was my first experience of the Emergency Shower in the lab. There was no other way of getting the mud off.
– In another lab, I helped someone sample a river for the bugs that lived there because I had done it before. Now to do this you need to wear waders that look like this, http://www.purefishing.com.au/accessories/shakespeare/shakespeare-waders/, and using a net that looks very much like a pool net. So we’re walking along collecting our samples when the person I was helping swore that she just saw a shark swim by.
I’m pretty level headed and nothing worries me, not even a shark in the river because, well it’s the river and we were in really shallow water and nothing had looked shark like. I was in the middle of telling them not to worry, I felt a large nudge on my right leg and a grey fin behind me.
I panicked and so did the other person. They got out and while I was getting out , I fell which is never good because filled with water so I had to undo them quickly so I wouldn’t drown or get stuck. As I was throwing off the waders and scrambling like a madwoman to the bank I felt another nudge and this time I fell over. The other person was getting really worried and yelling at me to move faster. I got to the bank covered in mud.
While I scanned the river for the shark and to take a photo to report it, a dolphin appeared. A dolphin! We’d never felt so silly. I felt especially stupid since I had grown up around crocodile infested waters. Compared to crocodiles, dolphins are like kittens.
– Once while I was analysing results, I was asked by a colleague, “Have you ever had a small-ish fire you couldn’t put out?” Possibly the worse words to ever hear in a lab. I grabbed a small fire extinguisher on the way just to be sure and I was led to the staffroom to be presented with a birthday cake. It was a surprise as I was going away for holiday and everyone wanted an excuse for cake. I did feel silly. I should have realised that something was up because the normal safety procedures hadn’t been triggered. What does that matter when there’s cake at the end?
After I finished my study, I went to do research in the San Francisco Bay area. The particular experiment was to measure how charged molecules, called ions, undergo chemical change. We used a pretty strong magnet to trap the ions, which would generate a radio signal as they moved in the magnetic trap. We’d measure the radio signals and work out how much of each ion we had. As the ions chemically changed (reacted) to form other molecules, some signals would decrease and others would increase. Well, every time I ran the experiment I’d get this strong radio signal, which seemed to be be in the middle of the military band. Just down the road was the Moffat Field Naval Air Station, from where the US Navy would fly their anti-submarine patrols out over the Pacific.
So I phoned the Navy and asked if they were broadcasting at this particular frequency because it was stuffing up my experiment. Yeah, right. As if they’d confirm or deny that to a non-US-citizen alien resident. Not quite a ha-ha funny thing, but it would qualify for the the World’s Silliest Video. The only good thing was that I didn’t give my name.
Things that seem funny now probably didn’t seem that funny at the time. My all time favourites are:
– I get to call myself a lizard gynaecologist (you might need to look that word up!)
– I’ve had chemicals explode in the lab (not funny at the time, but funny when I look back now)
– When I go to collect lizards, people ask me what I’m doing a lot. Sometimes people get very angry because they think I’m stealing lizards illegally to sell as pets (I always get permission before I collect lizards). It’s often easier to just hide in the bushes than answer all their questions though – I’m sure some people think I’m just some crazy lady hiding in the bushes with a big long pole!
– My boyfriend did his PhD on sea snails. One time I had to help him record how long snails could hang on to the rocks when you try to pull them off (it’s a really long time, so you have to bring a book to read!). Then a freak wave washed over all the electrical equipment we were using and I got an electric shock (again, funny in hindsight, not so much at the time!)
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In America I shared a lab with someone called Kris. One time she was doing an experiment and opened up a VERY old bottle of a chemical and was trying to work out whether the chemical was OK or whether it had gone off. At the time, I was on the phone in the lab. I’d been on the phone for about an hour trying to sort out something that was really irritating to do with my bank. I had been on hold for about 20 minutes, listening to the music they were playing me. I was really cross, waiting for the bank guy. I thought “there is no way I am hanging up the phone now – I’m going to see this through to the end.” As I was sitting there, Kris tipped up the bottle of the chemical. A single drop fell out onto a piece of paper, and the paper burst into flames. It was sensational. I rushed over to try to help her put the fire out, and I didn’t hang up the phone. I kind of wedged the phone next to my ear and helped her put out the flames. Kris said “I can’t BELIEVE you didn’t hang up the phone – there was a FIRE.” But it was fine. It’s called “multitasking.” I couldn’t stop laughing when the bank person came back on the line.
0
Ok, well I can’t beat those answers! I don’t remember anything specifically hilarious but I have made a few mistakes that other people in the Lab find funny. It wasn’t funny for me at the time and I don’t know that you would see the humour either!
We do have a lot of good conversations in the Lab though and some of them are hilarious. Yesterday we were talking about chimps taking over the world and how long it would take before you decided to cut your own arm off (like in the movie ‘128 hours’. Maybe not funny, but interesting.
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Oh boy. Here’s a list…
– In a lab once after I had finished with a bucket of fine clay and water, I managed to trip over the knee high white bucket sending mud all over the lab, (including the ceiling), and over myself. Everyone in the lab came running at my scream as I fell and were laughing when they all rocked up at the doorway. This was thankfully the days before phones came with cameras and before facebook. It was my first experience of the Emergency Shower in the lab. There was no other way of getting the mud off.
– In another lab, I helped someone sample a river for the bugs that lived there because I had done it before. Now to do this you need to wear waders that look like this, http://www.purefishing.com.au/accessories/shakespeare/shakespeare-waders/, and using a net that looks very much like a pool net. So we’re walking along collecting our samples when the person I was helping swore that she just saw a shark swim by.
I’m pretty level headed and nothing worries me, not even a shark in the river because, well it’s the river and we were in really shallow water and nothing had looked shark like. I was in the middle of telling them not to worry, I felt a large nudge on my right leg and a grey fin behind me.
I panicked and so did the other person. They got out and while I was getting out , I fell which is never good because filled with water so I had to undo them quickly so I wouldn’t drown or get stuck. As I was throwing off the waders and scrambling like a madwoman to the bank I felt another nudge and this time I fell over. The other person was getting really worried and yelling at me to move faster. I got to the bank covered in mud.
While I scanned the river for the shark and to take a photo to report it, a dolphin appeared. A dolphin! We’d never felt so silly. I felt especially stupid since I had grown up around crocodile infested waters. Compared to crocodiles, dolphins are like kittens.
– Once while I was analysing results, I was asked by a colleague, “Have you ever had a small-ish fire you couldn’t put out?” Possibly the worse words to ever hear in a lab. I grabbed a small fire extinguisher on the way just to be sure and I was led to the staffroom to be presented with a birthday cake. It was a surprise as I was going away for holiday and everyone wanted an excuse for cake. I did feel silly. I should have realised that something was up because the normal safety procedures hadn’t been triggered. What does that matter when there’s cake at the end?
0
After I finished my study, I went to do research in the San Francisco Bay area. The particular experiment was to measure how charged molecules, called ions, undergo chemical change. We used a pretty strong magnet to trap the ions, which would generate a radio signal as they moved in the magnetic trap. We’d measure the radio signals and work out how much of each ion we had. As the ions chemically changed (reacted) to form other molecules, some signals would decrease and others would increase. Well, every time I ran the experiment I’d get this strong radio signal, which seemed to be be in the middle of the military band. Just down the road was the Moffat Field Naval Air Station, from where the US Navy would fly their anti-submarine patrols out over the Pacific.
So I phoned the Navy and asked if they were broadcasting at this particular frequency because it was stuffing up my experiment. Yeah, right. As if they’d confirm or deny that to a non-US-citizen alien resident. Not quite a ha-ha funny thing, but it would qualify for the the World’s Silliest Video. The only good thing was that I didn’t give my name.
0