• Question: Do all scientists wear lab coats or is that just a myth?

    Asked by brudy2002 to Rosie, Joe, Juan, Kate, Rory on 7 Mar 2014. This question was also asked by juniorbubblegum.
    • Photo: Rosie Coates

      Rosie Coates answered on 7 Mar 2014:

      This is very definitely a myth! Personally I hardly ever wear a lab coat as I do most of my experiments on the computer and some people only ever do science on a computer!

      More and more science is being done on computers by people like me called bioinformaticians. Bioinformatician is just a very big word which describes someone who does science on a computer. We still need to put our lab coats on sometimes though and head back into the lab. In the lab we can make sure the things we find out using a computer are true.

    • Photo: Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez

      Juan Carlos Lopez-Baez answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      Yes, if you are in the lab, it is best to wear your lab coat. The lab coat protects you from any spills and some times it is really necessary as some of the stuff that you work with might not be good for you, so you need to be protected. We also wear gloves and, some times, we also wear goggles for eye protection too. I have heard of many stories where people have spilled things on them by mistake and if it wasn’t for their lab coat they would be in trouble.

    • Photo: Rory Miles

      Rory Miles answered on 12 Mar 2014:

      In my work it’s really important to wear a lab coat at work. We even have different colours for the different labs that I work in, to make sure that they are not used in the wrong lab (this could cause our experiments to go wrong). I generally wear a gown rather than a lab coat (this ties at the back rather than the front). The purpose is the same as a lab coat, but there is less risk of something getting onto your clothes if you were to drop it. Some of my colleagues even go as far as to wear a whole plastic (we call them tyvek) suit to protect their whole body. In my job it’s all about knowing what you should be wearing to protect yourself and other people.

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