Lab Life: Colours Around

I am at work but I thought I’d take a moment to show you something. What do you notice in the picture below?

This is a picture of my work bench…of a few things on my work bench actually. What do you see?

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I’ll help…a pair of gloves, a timer, a black box, couple of tube stands, a marker, etc. But do you notice the stark purple, the glaring yellows, the bright green, the multicoloured hand prints on the otherwise plain black box?

As I was leaving from work yesterday, I wondered why colours in a lab are so bright and in-your-face. Mind you the major part of a lab looks rather dull and grey with benches and tables groaning under the weight of the various types of equipment and the desks and computers settled in their allocated spaces for decades. But the paraphernalia in biological labs are particularly brightly coloured.

I first wondered if it is so the tired and groggy scientists can spot important things even in that awful state of theirs. But then I thought it is to try and cheer them up?

Colours play important roles in our life. Our perception of different colours and the associated moods is a well studied phenomenon. And so my guess couldn’t be far from right, I thought. The bright colours do bring in some life to the otherwise solitary cum mundane routines of a laboratory. I do draw some energy from these colours.

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What do your work spaces look like? Do they inspire thoughts and ideas? What sort of energy do they give out?

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