Not my stories, but a friend I used to work with..
These two stories (one surgical, the other not so surgical) came from a postdoc who was working in the lab I did my PhD in. He once decided to treat a slight infection in his thumb with antibiotics we had in the lab. The ones that say "Not intended for medical use". He made up the antibiotic solution, stuck a pipette tip containing the solution under the edge of his thumbnail, and pipetted out into the inflamed part of his thumb. Next day the infection had gone. On another occasion he was doing a caesium chloride gradient, and accidentally injected himself with the caesium chloride. I believe caesium chloride is a carcinogen, which may explain the lump that appeared a wee while later. Which he then cut out with a scalpel from the lab.
(dna_girl, Thu 20 Jan 2011, 20:38, 9 replies)

Oh fuck
Snopes are going to have to work overtime sorting out this QOTW. Here's a quick bit of help for them: this one's total bullshit.

You're welcome.
(SlantedScience, Thu 20 Jan 2011, 22:10, closed)

Right, just checked the msds for caesium chloride and it's not a carcinogen. I hedged my bets with the word "believe" in my original post. In the lab it's used for separation of nucleic acids. For someone working on proteins involved in separation of the spindle pole body during mitosis (a cellular event involving chromosomes and therefore DNA) this is a reasonable experiment to undertake. Fair enough it's not a carcinogen, but will probably cause local irritation which may result in a lump. Working in a biology lab we have access to many antibiotics, e.g. ampicillin, kanamycin, zeomycin, and we routinely make stock solutions of these, and we used to cut shit up all the time with scalpels.

Shove your snopes up your arse. If you worked in a lab you'd understand. One of our PhD students used to brush their teeth in the radioactive sink.

I love science, me. And the mental people you find there.
(dna_girl, Sat 22 Jan 2011, 0:31, closed)

Look, love...
...if you're a scientist, why would you talk about a chemical as "which I believe is a carcinogen"? Really, you need to KNOW what shit you're dealing with. And that means not believing what an MD in the lab tells you (tip: he was trying to get in your pants (if you're hot) or scare you (if you're ugly)).

Next, I had to tell you that it was bullshit in the first place, so please don't patronise me by copy/pasting the MSDS.

Next, if the medic finds a lump on his arm where he accidentally injected a harmless substance (which didn't happen), he does not take a scalpel to it in a lab. Likely he goes to a dermatologist, unlikely but possible he whips the fucker off in a ward.

Next, I know that us lab folk can buy experimental grade antibiotics. But think about the story: he is an MD, with access to the properly prepped stuff.

Finally: one of your PhD students used to brush their teeth in a radioactive sink? Conclusions:

1)Bullshit.
2)You total cunt for allowing them to do that.
3)Nah, bullshit.
(SlantedScience, Sat 22 Jan 2011, 4:51, closed)

Deary me
You're very angry for somebody who's wrong.
(dna_girl, Sat 22 Jan 2011, 9:51, closed)

since you're being a pedant
She said "postdoc" not MD. It's an entirely different thing... a postdoc is a researcher with a PhD and is not an MD and does not have medical training. I know this because I am a postdoc.

I have worked with people who would do these types of things. I also know that we quite often work with particular nasty chemicals without knowing exactly what kind of nasty they are. There's quite a lot of things we treat as if they're carcinogens just because we're not entirely sure (and even reading an msds won't tell you because the studies haven't been done).

I'm not saying the story is true, but the bit about the antibiotics is believable (I've considered doing it myself a couple of times, but never actually have) and your reasoning for why it isn't true doesn't actually hold when you know what us science nerd are really like. The worst I've done myself is burn off a wart with liquid nitrogen and another with dry ice.
(xanthine, Sun 23 Jan 2011, 2:37, closed)

^^ This
I've just started my PhD and you'd be amazed what us and the postdocs get up to, and who ever reads the MSDS properly?! My protein doesn't have an MSDS which I find slightly scarier than it having one to be honest, because it means nobody knows how dangerous it could be.

Plus, liquid nitrogen is fun :D
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Sun 23 Jan 2011, 17:06, closed)

If a post gets edited, does it leave a trail?

(SlantedScience, Wed 26 Jan 2011, 23:04, closed)

If a post gets edited, does it leave a trail?
Of course I could be a fool, but I think it said "MD" or similar, not "postdoc", at one point.
(SlantedScience, Wed 26 Jan 2011, 23:05, closed)

Google's cache tells me.......
I'm a cunt. Sorry.
(SlantedScience, Wed 26 Jan 2011, 23:07, closed)