how do the labs differ if you have been in more than one??

Question: how do the labs differ if you have been in more than one??

Asked by squitch to Pete, Rebecca, SallyB, Sally, Sian on 15 Jun 2010 in Categories: Scientist.
- Sally Barber answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  I’ve never really worked in a traditional lab.
  
  For my PhD my lab was a room with a bed, a treadmill and lots of different equipment in for carrying out measurements of body composition, measuring heart function and fitness levels and assessements of how healthy a persons arteries were. Participants would come and either lie down on a bed whilst I took measurements of their artery health or run on a treadmill whilst I took measurements of their breathing (gas exchange), blood pressure, heart rate and heart function. I took blood samples from participants and prepared the samples in a blood lab but then sent them off to a lab at a hospital to have them analysed because I didn’t have the equipment or the knowledge of how to do it.
  
  In my second research job most of the work i did was at children’s centres measuring body composition of toddlers and their heart and artery function. We had a small room set up in the children’s centre to use with all of our equipment in. I also had to visit the children at their homes to put a heart monitor on them whilst they slept overnight.
  
  In my present job me and my team of researchers will visit elderly participants in their own homes to carry out tests of functional ability (how fit they are and how well they cope at home) and ask them lots of questions. I will also be running another study with toddlers again and again I will visit them in their own homes.
- Rebecca Randell answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  The labs in my department are different depending on what kind of thing you are doing. The lab i spend most of my time in is called “The Human Performance Laboratory”. In this lab there are 5 exercise bikes and a treadmill. I use the exercise bikes as part of my research and i make my subjects cycle for 30minutes. I also collect blood samples from my subjects. I analyse my blood samples to look at things in the blood like fat and glucose. When i’m analysing I spend more time in “The Analytical Lab”. This lab has lots of equipment and machines, most of which looks scary and difficult to use. The machines are mostly used for measuring things in blood.
- Peter Styring answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  I’ve worked in the UK, US, France, Spain and Italy. The US had very good equipment in the labs until it was all stolen! Spain and Italy had good labs but health and safety was a little questionable. The UK and France have some very good kit.
- Sian Lawson answered on 14 Jun 2010:
  
  That’s a really good question. They’re really different from place to place, ad I didn’t realise that before I started. Some have relaxed, jokey atmospheres, some are ultra-competitive; in some people are there all around the clock putting the hours in and some have strict lunch and coffee rituals where everyone gets together. They are also different in terms of funding, facilties, and the research topics that they focus on.
  
  I’m lucky that I’ve been able to travel around a bit – see where I fit in (and start my own).
- Sally Fenton answered on 15 Jun 2010:
  
  Labs differ depending on what you are trying to find out about. They generally all look the same (a big room full of loads of equipment)..but the things inside of them are different. For example, I work in an exercise lab at the Birmingham Children’s Hospital and in there we have an exercise bike, a hospital bed and a very expensive piece of equipment called an indirect calorimeter which basically allow us to work out how much energy someone is using up from analysing the the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide someone breathes in and out.
  
  When people come into my lab I ask them to lie on the bed for 40 minutes whilst they watch TV and I use the indirect calorimeter to measure how much energy they use up at rest. I then look at there heart and arteries to see how well they function and ask them to do some exercise on the exercise bike whilst they wear monitors which measure their activity level. This will vay though depending on what research project I am doing and what I am tryng to find out.
  
  Some of the research I am doing will be done on a lab in a bus!! It is basically a lab on wheels which we can take to places and do research anywhere we like (within reason…we won’t be flying it over to France or anything like that.
  
  The labs in the sport and exercise science building at Birmingham University where my office is based are different though. Here we have a lab with a laser microscope (which looks at human body cells in lots of detail), Cryostat (which cuts up peoples muscle!…after it has been taken out of them of course!), a DEXA scanner (which x rays your whole body and tells you how much fat and muscle etc. you have in your body…Birmingham City Football Club use this alot), a treadmill, some weights machines and loads of TVs!
  
  So really what is in the lab depends on what it is being used for.. The scientists working in them fill them with what they need. I’m sure people who do loads of chemical experiments have labs with the craxy mazes of test tubes like you see on TV…but I have never been in one of those!

Question: how do the labs differ if you have been in more than one??

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