Friday, June 02, 2006
Nothing says class and sophistication like a chemical burn
Today I was busy prepping RNA from mouse lungs, which involves homogenizing the organ in this stuff called TRIzol. TRIzol is a mixture of a lovely carcinogenic, extremely caustic chemical called phenol and this other caustic chemical called guanidinium isothiocyanate. Normally, I use a mechanical blender/smoothie machine-type thing for this purpose. However, I've been having a lot of problems with RNA degradation lately, and I think it's because of the blender. Therefore, I decided to do my preps today the old school way, with Dounces. These are sort of like specialized glass mortar and pestles designed for grinding up tissue. As per usual, I was flagrantly flouting established safety regulations, and was doing this without a lab coat or safety goggles.
Even though I've been designated our lab's "Chemical Hygiene Officer," I am hardly a strict enforcer of chemical safety rules. I rarely wear "personal protective equipment," unless I think I'm at risk of splashing something on myself or I'm working with radiation. I wasn't using isotopes today, and I figured there was a low splash risk. Besides, I felt lazy today, and dressed in an old wife-beater and jeans. I didn't really feel like getting gussied up in my finery this morning, as I was going to spend the day holed up in lab, and I'm not planning on going out tonight (since I have to get up early and come in to lab tomorrow!) Unfortunately, I underestimated the risk of splashing mouse guts and TRIzol all over myself.
As I was grinding up my last lung sample, I pulled the mortar part of the Dounce out of the tube too quickly and shot TRIzol all over my face and shoulders. "Oh, fuck!" I shouted. J-Sexy looked over and asked what was wrong. "I've got TRIzol all over my shit!" I exclaimed. "What should I do?"
"Wash your face off before it burns you! Use some detergent, to get out the organics," she advised. So I went to the sink and actually washed my face with virucidal lab hand soap, which is considerably less gentle to the delicate skin of one's face than my usual Neutrogena cleanser. The lab soap dried the fuck out of my skin, which consequently gave my complexion a sickeningly oily sheen. Gross. I looked like Tonya Harding without the huge bangs. Additionally, I didn't get my soap on quickly enough, and thus still ended up feeling the unpleasant tingling sensation that I recognized as symptomatic of phenol exposure to bare skin.
As if the wife-beater, lack of makeup, and beat-up flip flops I was wearing today didn't make me look P.W.T. enough, now I have some incredibly attractive chemical burns on my face and shoulders to enhance my unbearably sexy I-run-a-meth-lab-in-rural-Pierce-County mystique. Obviously, you can take the girl out of Puyallup, but you can't take the Puyallup out of the girl.
Here's a really good-looking close-up of my shoulder:
I am one foxy broad, right? This weekend is going to be GREAT. Nothing gets me more fired up than looking like I'm developing leprosy. Skin lesions are really in this season, so it's a shame that I have to spend so much of the weekend in lab. If I were to go out, I'd undoubtedly be the toast of New York with my fashion-forward look. I'd be right up there with other similarly tricked-out sex symbols, like the Phantom of the Opera, Eric Stoltz's character in the movie Mask, and Pizza the Hut from Spaceballs. I'm SOOOO lucky to work in a lab where I'm lucky enough to be showered in dangerous and disfiguring chemicals! Science rules!
Even though I've been designated our lab's "Chemical Hygiene Officer," I am hardly a strict enforcer of chemical safety rules. I rarely wear "personal protective equipment," unless I think I'm at risk of splashing something on myself or I'm working with radiation. I wasn't using isotopes today, and I figured there was a low splash risk. Besides, I felt lazy today, and dressed in an old wife-beater and jeans. I didn't really feel like getting gussied up in my finery this morning, as I was going to spend the day holed up in lab, and I'm not planning on going out tonight (since I have to get up early and come in to lab tomorrow!) Unfortunately, I underestimated the risk of splashing mouse guts and TRIzol all over myself.
As I was grinding up my last lung sample, I pulled the mortar part of the Dounce out of the tube too quickly and shot TRIzol all over my face and shoulders. "Oh, fuck!" I shouted. J-Sexy looked over and asked what was wrong. "I've got TRIzol all over my shit!" I exclaimed. "What should I do?"
"Wash your face off before it burns you! Use some detergent, to get out the organics," she advised. So I went to the sink and actually washed my face with virucidal lab hand soap, which is considerably less gentle to the delicate skin of one's face than my usual Neutrogena cleanser. The lab soap dried the fuck out of my skin, which consequently gave my complexion a sickeningly oily sheen. Gross. I looked like Tonya Harding without the huge bangs. Additionally, I didn't get my soap on quickly enough, and thus still ended up feeling the unpleasant tingling sensation that I recognized as symptomatic of phenol exposure to bare skin.
As if the wife-beater, lack of makeup, and beat-up flip flops I was wearing today didn't make me look P.W.T. enough, now I have some incredibly attractive chemical burns on my face and shoulders to enhance my unbearably sexy I-run-a-meth-lab-in-rural-Pierce-County mystique. Obviously, you can take the girl out of Puyallup, but you can't take the Puyallup out of the girl.
Here's a really good-looking close-up of my shoulder:
I am one foxy broad, right? This weekend is going to be GREAT. Nothing gets me more fired up than looking like I'm developing leprosy. Skin lesions are really in this season, so it's a shame that I have to spend so much of the weekend in lab. If I were to go out, I'd undoubtedly be the toast of New York with my fashion-forward look. I'd be right up there with other similarly tricked-out sex symbols, like the Phantom of the Opera, Eric Stoltz's character in the movie Mask, and Pizza the Hut from Spaceballs. I'm SOOOO lucky to work in a lab where I'm lucky enough to be showered in dangerous and disfiguring chemicals! Science rules!
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