Looking back and looking forward: last-minute lab prep for a better 2021

Christmas is just around the corner and although some things are exactly the same as ever, including the songs playing on the radio and the depressingly shorter days, this year´s Christmas holidays look radically different from what most of us are used to. 

Some of us won´t be spending Christmas with our families due to restrictions or because of the risk of infecting vulnerable loved ones – others are forced to take extended holidays to comply with quarantine and testing rules. After a year with disease, death, depressive news and delayed projects, I think we could all use some time off – with or without family visits!

Some things are better left behind – others would be nice to carry with us into 2021

My name is Nikoline Borgermann. I have a Ph.D. in Health and Medical Sciences and I work as a sustainable science consultant helping laboratories reduce their environmental impact. This is my debut as a guest writer for Starlab – with whom I share my passion for sustainable development!

Now that it´s almost time to enter a new year, I can easily think of a few things that I would gladly leave behind in year 2020. Some of my top ‘things to leave behind’ are without a doubt the pandemic, fake news and extreme weather events all over the globe – of which the most recent ones have hit Australia, Central America and the Philippines full-speed.

While it´s extremely unlikely that Santa will gift me with leaving these things behind, I am convinced that another of my wishes will be fulfilled; an increasing focus on sustainability will for sure follow us into 2021.

The Green Lab Movement is growing

Sustainability has undoubtedly become a mega trend – and it has finally entered the labs!

Laboratory work leaves an enormous ecological footprint behind due to the extensive waste production as well as the high consumption of energy, water, reagents and materials. Needless to say, some of the eco footprint is a ‘necessary evil’ – but we can do a lot to reduce the environmental impact of our lab work without compromising the research! 

This year we´ve seen many more lab users and institutions becoming aware of the environmental impact of their laboratories, and we have seen many more companies, institutions, labs and individuals take green lab actions. Maybe you did too – or maybe you thought about it?

If you work in a lab, the ecological footprint from your work is much higher than the ecological footprint from your life outside of work. This is why it´s so impactful to take green actions in the lab! 

Now that you are (hopefully) about to go on holidays, you might think that it´s not a good time to start taking green lab actions. But in fact, the timing is perfect for certain green lab actions …

Yet another Christmas tradition: the pre-holiday insanity

Before starting as a sustainable science consultant, I worked in bioscience labs in Denmark and Germany for more than 5 years. And the exact same situation occurred every single time a holiday was approaching: I wanted to finish an overly optimistic long list of experiments and answer at least a few larger scientific questions before going on holidays – because wouldn´t that be nice!?

Most times I actually managed to finish an incredible number of experiments (with high pulse and shallow breathing, though) but I always ended up leaving a serious lab book chaos and a bunch of poorly-labeled samples behind.

The ‘Holiday Memory Loss’ syndrome

It´s not only highly unsatisfactory to return to the lab after a break to find chaos and unfinished business, it´s also not very green. Because if there is one thing I learned about taking holidays from the lab, it´s this: I NEVER remember any experiment details after a holiday. What exactly did I do in this experiment? How much enzyme did I end up adding? And what did I mean when I wrote ‘HeLa 3’ on this tube?! Unfortunately, ‘Holiday Memory Loss’ can easily translate into missing (or mysterious) samples, insufficient lab book documentation or non-locatable data – all of which ultimately lead to repetition of experiments. That´s both a waste of time and a waste of planetary resources.

If you feel like you are too busy to take any green lab actions before Christmas, it´s exactly the right time to take these three, small actions

Do you have too much on your plate for the next few weeks? My best tip: Assume that you will forget everything over the holidays and go through this green lab pre-holiday checklist:

• Make sure your samples are labeled adequately so you know exactly what they are when you return after your holidays
• Update your lab book and write down all the important details of how you conducted your experiments, so you won´t have to redo experiments simply because you didn´t document them sufficiently
• Save your data files with meaningful, informative names and in appropriate folders (which are backed up!); don´t leave your data "temporarily" at desktops, USBs or the like with arbitrary file names

These three actions greatly increase the chances of your pre-Christmas work actually BEING USED – and this in turn reduces the risk of having to repeat your experiments!

In addition, they will hopefully take some pressure off your brain & memory so you can enjoy the Christmas holidays – in whatever weird pandemic format – with at least a little peace of mind.

Stay strong & safe – and Merry Christmas.