Archive for June 14th, 2005

Register, and give in to the Dark Side

Tuesday, June 14th, 2005

Because of the archaic way in which our institute does its external requisitioning (well, there’s a new system but please don’t get me started on that. Actually, it’s Part 2 of the ‘ordering’ rant , which yet bubbles in your correspondent’s cauldron) we have a level of self-authorization for orders. That is, anything less than a certain amount doesn’t need signing by the PI.

So there is a real incentive to find out the prices of reagents before writing an order. This is, I am forced to admit, not purely from the altruistic motive of not wanting to disturb the boss (or indeed from trying to save the taxpayer’s money); sometimes he’s difficult to find and at others I don’t want him to know what experiments I intend to perform. Such is the enigma that is British science in the 21st century. (more…)