• Question: Are there different types of labs?

    Asked by mariaa.s to Ceri, Marikka, Matt, Rob, Sally on 11 Nov 2014.
    • Photo: Sally Cutler

      Sally Cutler answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Absolutely! For starters there are diagnostic labs, teaching labs, commercial labs and research ones. These will often be divided up by the types of experiments done in each one such as molecular work, cultivation or serology. You can again divide these for viruses, bacteria and fungi. You can also divide these up into biosecurity levels so really dangerous microbes are worked with in special high containment labs, whilst less dangerous ones are worked with on an open bench in a lab.

    • Photo: Ceri Dare

      Ceri Dare answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Yes! Today I am sat in an office next to hospital microbiology labs. These are to test things like blood, poo and wee for germs. A physics lab or even a plant biology lab would be very different. But not all scientists work in labs, I don’t. I use computers, talking to people, and patient records.

    • Photo: Robert Hampson

      Robert Hampson answered on 11 Nov 2014:

      Laboratory comes from the Latin verb ‘laborare’ which means ‘to work’ and really a laboratory is just a space in which scientists can control the environment enough to work and do reliable experiments. The kind of control you need for different types of experiment in different disciplines changes and so the labs change to suit. There are also different safety concerns in each discipline. I work in a chemistry lab so I have a fumehood which continually pulls the air out of a cupboard sized space so more air rushes in the front part. This is a means to make sure I don’t breathe in or become contaminated by the chemicals I work with, instead these are treated and then pumped out of a chimney. In a microbiological lab, it doesn’t matter if you breathe the same air as your germs as long as the germs have been filtered from the air. So the safety cabinets in microbiological labs to not vent outside after treatment but are simply filtered then pumped back into the same room.

    • Photo: Marikka Beecroft

      Marikka Beecroft answered on 12 Nov 2014:

      There are loads of different types of lab depending on what they are used for. For example a chemistry lab will be different to a biology lab which will be different to a physics lab. It all depends what work you’re intending to do in there.

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