When A Non Lab Person Walks Into Microbiology

I can't even begin to think of how an uninitiated being would react to the myriad smells emanating from the Micro lab. Do you remember your first whiff when you were a student? Can we consider that a sort of Whiff Test in itself? If a student is fine with the smells, you'll do just fine in the clinical lab environment. Once they pass that initial test, you get to tell them about the REAL Whiff Test. 

If they're fine with the resultant putrescine, cadaverine, trimethylamine, etc you get after adding 10% KOH to a potential BV patient....weird flex but ok

Hold your breath when walking by the stool cultures. Put a gas mask on when opening the anaerobic cultures. Do our scrubs get permeated with the yeasty, brothy, peptony, general micro lab smell? God forbid you autoclave anything that had microbiological media in it. The autoclave serves to atomize the scents beyond regular capabilities. Maybe those who get mild COVID symptoms and lose their sense of smell are actually at an advantage. But wait... how then will they perform the WHIFF TEST? Or know if that swarming culture is truly Proteus? 

Next time, maybe just call or video chat us in Microbiology if it offends you so. 👃