Last Bits of the Lab Overhaul

Our new lab space at Lincoln University's Foster Hall is coming along splendidly. Nearly all of the old equipment has been cleared. Supplies that will not be used have either been pilfered by other researchers or hauled downstairs to be stored. And best of all, we have begun regularly using the lab space for sample preparation and other research activities. We are still waiting on a number of instruments and equipment to arrive, but orders - especially of large items - take forever to go through the bureaucratic mess that is LU's purchasing department. But in the meantime, we've cleared a lot of lab bench space for the new equipment to take up residence. Some of the more crucial items that we're waiting on include a refrigerator and an optics table. Once we have the optics table set up, we'll be all set to move the spectrofluorometer and a new microscope into the lab.

Unfortunately, there are two pieces of equipment that are taking up valuable real estate in the lab that we're having trouble getting rid of. The first is an ancient calorimeter, which is integrated into the benchtop and is connected to a dedicated water line. We've had to request that LU facilities and maintenance come to disconnect it and break it down so that it can be hauled down to surplus.


The other item of interest is this old refrigerator. It is packed with biological samples, and of course I was the one who discovered that it had stopped working. I opened the door of the unit to discover a most putrid odor - and a tepid can of Natural Light in the butter dish. We're waiting on the owner of the samples in the fridge to receive a new refrigerator so that he can remove the contents and we can have the old non-functional machine hauled away.


All in all, it's coming together. At least the lab is now useable, which is more than I could have said a month ago. When the last of the old equipment is gone, I'll post some pictures of the lab. Hopefully we'll have some of our fancy new instruments installed by then. I'm wishing now that I would have taken some pictures before we started cleaning so that I could do a before-and-after comparison. But alas, you'll just have to take my word for it that the lab was in a very sorry state of affairs before we moved in.