• Question: What was the biggest mistake you ever made at work?

    Asked by DrPuddings to Chris, Paul, Priyanka, Ryan, Sarah on 7 Mar 2016.
    • Photo: Christine Coonick

      Christine Coonick answered on 7 Mar 2016:

      I think of ‘mistake’ as a negative word – probably my pride getting in the way :-). I always like to think of situations that haven’t gone quite gone the way I planned as learning opportunities. And yes I have had plenty of them!

      The one that sticks in my head was when I wired a relay switch up wrong (as I was in a hurry and just assumed it connected the same as the previous switch I had fitted). This relay controlled the heating and air extraction on an environmental chamber that I was using to test equipment at 45 degrees Celsius – which is quite an uncomfortable heat to work in. However because I connected the switch up wrong it didn’t turn off the heaters when it reached the set temperature and kept on going. By the time I got into work the next day all the plastic inside the chamber had gone very soft and floppy. I still have what was once a ducting tube as a garden ornament.

    • Photo: Priyanka Dhopade

      Priyanka Dhopade answered on 10 Mar 2016:

      I agree with Christine – “mistake” is probably too strong a word. When doing research in a lab, we’re constantly pushing the technology to its limits. Things are bound to go wrong! Myself and everyone I know at work has had something go “wrong” with their experiment at one point or another – we just fix it and move on.

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