The Lab Vending Machine?

Here’s the scenario: You’re working late at night in the lab, trying to beat the deadline imposed upon you by your tyrannical manager and the irrational business types. It’s the weekend. You’re all alone at work. You’re at a critical step in your protocol. You open the fridge to grab that all-important enzyme for your gene splicing experiment and – oh my god, it’s gone! That f*ckin’ lab tech Bob down the hall borrowed it without asking and didn’t return it again! You run madly through the halls of your lab building, frantically throwing open lab fridges to look through other people’s badly-labeled reagent boxes trying to find your vial, or anyone’s vial, of your precious enzyme. Resigned to failure, you stumble back to your lab to figure out how to save your experiment, your project, your deadline, and, while you’re at it, your miserable career in biotech (or doctorate project or whatever is most applicable to you if you are in science).

Well never fear! Before you start contemplating hiring a hit man for Bob, now there are vending machines for your precious reagent!

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/news/1184297126249120.xml&coll=7

Yes, you too can enjoy the modern marvel of vending machines. It’s not just for cola, chips, and soggy sandwiches anymore! With the press of a button combo and a swipe of a payment card, a bag of your favorite enzyme or E. coli bacteria will neatly screw out of the chosen slot and fall to the opening like a bag of pretzels, any time of the day or night.

Of course, that little vial of reagent costs a heck of a lot more than 75 cents. Try up to $200.00. Careful with your button-pushing!

It’s important to note that the lab vending machines are situated directly next to the cola and chip machines. Given the groggy state I’m in during those late-night lab “emergencies,” I’m just as likely to choose the wrong frickin’ machine and wind up munching on a vial of DNA while shaking potato chips onto my lab samples. Mmmmm, GFP-transformed bacteria. [insert slobber sounds]

And what do you do if your all-important, $150-bag of enzymes gets hung up on the dispensor? Shake and bang the vending machine, of course!

Ya gotta love convenience-technology.


Image from HERE.