And Now, A Moment of Silliness...

To (feebly) counteract the effects of my previous post, I offer a bit of levity.


(Yes, I am posting a picture of my lab notebooks instead of a picture of an enormous pot of solution, because the latter is much more difficult to get - I don't actually have access to the lab without my coworkers around.)

My official lab notebook at work is everything one can wish for - hardcover, permanently bound, pre-paginated and with space for project information and notarization...it even has instructions on how to maintain a lab notebook!

My *real* lab notebook is a dog-eared, much maligned spiral-bound booklet, filled with random instructions, calculations of all sorts (including stupid stuff like addition), and much of my raw data.

Technically, this is very poor practice, since there is actually a transfer of information between two lab notebooks. I certainly don't do this with notebooks for schoolwork. However, my little spiral-bound book actually fits in my lab coat pocket, and I can write anything in it - machine configurations, tricks not in the SOPs, random instrument parameters, sudden pieces of information flying my way, reminders to self, in addition to actual procedures, observations and data that I ought to be performing or collecting. I can even rip pages off to give to other people.

I learnt this trick in my first work term, actually. Most of the data there are titration volumes, so the little notebook is definitely much handier than an actual hardcover book (especially within the confines of a huge - but somewhat crowded - fume hood).

Both notebooks are kept in perhaps not the clearest, but certainly the simplest, style: chronologically. I also have tabulated data on my computer, of course. Maybe I should invest in colour-coded stickers so my coworkers can navigate through my notebook after my work term ends.