So this is what the first half of 2010 was all about: how can I beg, borrow, or steal various lab necessities in order to minimize the blow to my start-up funds.
Did you hear the one about the kid who traded up a cell phone for a porsche? Imagine if we did that in lab! I can see it now. I give my undergrad a Fischer click pen. Undergrad trades it for a TLC plate. The TLC plate gets traded for an NMR tube, which in turn gets bartered for a wash bottle. Eventually Undergrad makes it to a 1-mL eppendorf pipet. What to trade for next?
The possibilities are endless, especially given the random contents of most of my colleague's labs.
What a great way to solve my budget issues! Trade all the useless crap from professors long gone for stuff I need.
