• Question: How long do your experiments take?

    Asked by coopere to Callum, Katie, Sam on 22 Nov 2012.
    • Photo: Sam Godfrey

      Sam Godfrey answered on 22 Nov 2012:

      It massively varies. A short experiment can take less than a day, but some can take months in lots of different parts. I have some friends who are working on parkinsons disease and one experiment of theirs takes 3 months. They have to make up their chemicals and reagents they want to test, expose them to brains. Then after a wait of a week or two, cut up the brains and do all the analysis. If the experiment doesn’t work they only find out after 2 and a half months then have to start again. Horrible. Whereas yesterday I did an experiment that took 3 hours and worked.

    • Photo: Katie Howe

      Katie Howe answered on 22 Nov 2012:

      Hi coopere-

      Most of my experiments take several days from start to finish but sometimes I might have to leave my cells for something to happen to them overnight so I don’t need to be in the lab for the entire time! (thankfully!)

      Also in order to make a conclusion from an experiment I have to make sure I have repeated it at least three times – (to make sure it wasnt just a fluke or a bad day in the lab!), so it could take a month to get the answer to a specific question!

      I have to keep very careful notes on which experiment is which otherwise I get confused and could ruin all my experiments! That would be really annoying!

    • Photo: Callum Johnston

      Callum Johnston answered on 22 Nov 2012:

      Hey coopere,

      My experiments tend not to take very long. The cells I have only survive for a few weeks and are best to use between 1-2 weeks old. When I starve them of oxygen, I do that for between 30 mins and 4 hours, then let them recover over night. The tests I do to see what has happened to them normally take about 4 hours, but I just have to put the test on, leave them, and go back at the end to record the result.

      Like Sam I know some people who work with mice, and they sometimes have to wait months to see what effects are happening to the brain over a long time.

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