While many are having a rough time throughout the world, we thought one of the best ways to lighten the mood for those stuck at home would be to repeat our much-loved Lab Fails Contest. Remember, not only do all the lucky winners receive a LabTAG DNA plushy, but they also have the distinction of having one of the worst (and best!) lab fails of the year. Here to brighten you day are the best lab fails of 2020.

#1 – The Melted Rack

From the author:

“The (relatively inexperienced) grad student put the pipette rack into the autoclave as an experiment. Actual (un-autoclaved) pipette rack shown for scale.”

#2 – Tip Splatter

From the Author:

“When you drop a box of tips and make a whole crime and investigation scenes to cover it up…no doubt, I find myself in the last few months of the project with very little done!”

#3 – The Forbidden Tip Rack

From the author:

“We had a postdoc who did this. As a surprise to absolutely no one, his cultures were contaminated. He insisted the air was being circulated down and outside despite the obvious fact the barrier was already compromised. Please for the love of all things good, don’t do this.”

#4 Tie – The Poopening & The Poopening 2

From the author of “The Poopening”:

“Our tech specialist was running a study that required a wide array of human stool samples. So, we started keeping all of the fresh stool samples our large lab received to do testing. Usually, the samples are discarded after three days, but we had specimens that were months old. As Poop Mountain grew, we needed more refrigerator space to store it all. Someone didn’t think it through when they decided to use the extra space in the BSL3 suite anteroom. Once the study was finally over, all that crap had to exit the BSL3. Through the autoclave. We had forty pounds of human feces in a pressure cooker for an hour. When the door opened, it smelled like a rancid molten barnyard throughout the entire lab. To this day, we refer to it as The Poopening.”

From the author of “The Poopening 2”:

“It was one of my first days working in my lab, and I was learning the ins and outs of extracting DNA from fecal samples, so needless to say, I was excited to get going. I had digested my samples the night before, so they were nice and warm and ready for extraction! I had begun spinning down a sample loaded into a PowerBead tube when I heard a strange noise coming from the vortexer…no sooner, I turned my head and noticed that it wasn’t sealed correctly, and I was covered in a mixture of PowerBeads and digested mountain goat poop. Needless to say, my first DNA extraction was quite explosive and I am happy to say that my recent lab work has been less eventful.”

#6 – The Haunted Blot

From the author:

“Ran a western blot looking for changes in protein levels in response to an siRNA KD of related genes, got a haunted blot instead.”

#7 – The Gel From Hell

From the author:

“Never believe the undergrad when they say, ‘I can follow the protocol, it’s just a few steps!’”

#8 – Liquid Waste Polyacrylamide Electrophoresis

From the author:

“I ran a gel to be used for western blot, and it went horribly wrong. I had made my running buffer in a large beaker, and I also had a large beaker for liquid waste on my bench. Turns out I poured the wrong beaker into the gel tank. The gel looked fine for the first 20 minutes then started running weird and melting. Pro tip: don’t pour a months worth of liquid benchtop waste into your gel tank.”

#9 – Pop Top

From the author:

“Pyrex top doesn’t want to separate from the volumetric flask.”

#10 – What Exquisite Ladders You Have!

From the author:

“My ladders worked out pretty well :).” 

Lab Fails of 2020 Honorable Mention:

From the author:

“Second year biochemistry undergrad here, performed a first PCR without help. Long story short, our best band was in the negative control.”