Bite sized Irony....

I love food, Man! So much so that I am doing my final masters thesis on Beta glucans and Fructans in processed barley. No, I dont look anything like this-

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Not even close. But I do love observing little details and write fun blogs about them. And this story happened in the lab today. For those who are elsewhere in the world, heres something you wont know about natives from my most favourite country-Sweden. They are so obsessed with energy and its saving that they hardly talk to each other. Not to forget their other indulgences- recycling, sorting waste, recycling, "Green" technology, environment and oh yeah! Recycling.

Something indeed funny caught my eye. For the non scientific critics who will be reading my blog, I am going to break it down to fool proof science- pictures and words. 

Here goes.

The picture below shows a small selection of plastic tubes that most people use to analyze their samples in a lab. Most of them are disposable and made of plastic. Not very "Green". Only some of them are reused depending on the numbers in use. Most of the time, there will be 100's of these in an assortment going to the bin.

Tree huggers....I know, but it has to be done, in the name of science.

                                                                                                                                                                    

Part of day today was to take measurements of 50 crimson coloured solutions to check for its intensity. The  picture on the right is that of a range of cuvettes- something made of plastic that the crimson solutions are added to, for measurements. They are expensive and disposable also. I remember there was a time when high schools in India has labs that had a glass/crystal cuvette that was probably the most expensive commodity in there.                                                                                                                      For 50 solutions we disposed of 50 of these bad boys. Straight in the bin that says "Plastic". Just hang on to this thought. 

Another experiment of the day involved weighing an array of 46 bran dust samples kept in Swedish Christmas candy foils. 

 

The picture above is exactly that product that Swedes make their home made chocolate in. They are fairly inexpensive (left to a rational persons imagination). After their weights, I disposed them in the trash can that handles miscellaneous waste.

Here comes the funny part. Earlier today, I had a discussion with my supervisior regarding the cuvette trivia that I have shared here. After a while when I was asked about if I had measured the weights, she asked me about what happened to the little cup cake foils. I said, " I put them in the bin". To which the reply was, "I forgot to tell you, we need them for reuse". I smiled at my supervisor thinking that shes joking, only to realize that she was serious. "They are hard to find and they suit our purpose best", she later added. 

There was a serious crisis of butter in the butter obsessed country of Norway last year during Christmas. So much so, it was all over the news. No joke. I had a hearty-hearty maniacal laugh then, but this one beats that. I have now sworn to my supervisor that I ll buy every available pack of cup cake foils that I will come across in the near future, no to make them bite sized goodness of chocolates, but, for my lab. Oh yeah! My department members have a sense of humour or what!