I walked into the office the other day to grab a notebook, with a pile of shiny, new tissue culture plastics under my arm.
CK accused me of hoarding the flasks and wotnot like a squirrel. I countered by saying that I intended to be the only person capable of carrying out cell culture in a post-apocalyptic world, cornering the market as it were. Think of me as a pre-alcoholic Mel Gibson.
Subsequently I read that Alex is pondering how much science costs:
Ideally we should be spending about 1000$/postdoc per month, right now we're over 1500$ (I personally am probably <1000$). Of course these figures depend on the project and don't factor in those big ticket items.
It's a useful exercise, and I still contend that cell biologists are expensive. They probably have quite a measurable ecological impact as well, especially if they use disposable pipettes (and this is something I'm seriously considering changing). My RT-PCR experiments are reasonably expensive, although I'm using a cheap method of making RNA (it uses phenol but I can process 48 samples in about the same amount of 'hands-on' time it takes with the hellishly expensive and plasticful kit methods) and have found that SuperScript III works just as well at half the recommended concentration, in half the recommended volume.
I do know that in my previous (structural) lab we were considered 'cheap', and the boss encouraged us to spend money rather than pinch the pennies and let the work suffer. It helped that we had a reputation for returning a good "papers per pound" ratio. I am always looking for ways of saving money; it makes the grant go further and after all we're only stewards of the generally public funding we receive. It's only right we should be responsible.
This touches on the kits issue — kits end to be expensive but have the potential to save time, which if you calculate in terms of salary is not insignificant. Some kits of course use more plastic than the equivalent 'manual' method, and do not save any 'hands-on' time, so the equation is complex. There are also other issues that are the subject of a post still in the incubator.
I hope this helps you realize that it is not all about steaming ahead and doing good science. There simply is not enough money around to do that. Some experiments are postponed or cancelled altogether because they are too expensive. It helps to get things right the first time. We will beg, borrow and steal reagents and equipment when necessary.
Ultimately, in the publish or perish environment of modern-day scientific research, the thought "Can I afford to do this experiment" is always balanced by "Can I afford not to do this experiment?". Sometimes it is difficult to know the answer.
And if Tina Turner shows up we're in deep doodoo.
Comments
Hm... that $1,000 per person per month figure sounds familiar from my PDF days, when we were in a slight crunch. That was between 6 and 9 years ago, which is a little scary (inflation, as we know, doesn't apply to grants, at least not in the way it applies to the rest of the financial world).
And things haven't changed... running this facility, we're constantly looking for ways to economize (in order to provide services cheaper, essentially, and/or make enough money on some services to pay for the money-losing ones).
Fact of life I guess.
Posted by: Ricardipus, whiffling as usual | November 2, 2006 01:30 AM
When you are talking about disposable pipettes you mean the 1, 5, 10, 25 ml? The ones in plastic rather than the one in glass that one cleans and autoclaves every time?
I had glasspipiettes prior to moving to the States and I must say I felt better using them. On the other hand, I am not sure how much energy that is spent cleaning and autoclaving but surely that must be better for the environment than plastic getting thrown out?
I must say over all that science probably produce heaps on 'unneccessary' garbage, which in the end is a problem. Unnecc. in that aspect that at least here we have to throw everything that looks like science tubes etc into Biohazard wastebins even though it might not even be anything in there. This for the cleaning personel not to get worried...
When it comes to kits, I am on the fence :) I like them but I can see the expenses and sometimes it is just not worth it when you can do it yourself.
Posted by: challenge | November 2, 2006 02:39 AM
My son-in-law and daughter have decided to go into a business venture of breeding rats. Is there any information that I can pass onto them (+ or-) that may be of help.
Thanks
JB
Posted by: John Boland | March 12, 2007 05:11 PM