"Hey, Mr. P.I. -- sorry, that's doctor P.I. -- you, hold this blue folder and make a serious face while you read aloud to the visiting research associate.
Okay, now, we need this photo to look all sciencey and stuff, so why don't you put some lab equipment on the desk. No, not that lab equipment, the new sparkly lab equipment.
No, don't fill it with that transparent solution you were studying. Too boring. Hey, kid, run down the hall and get me an orange Fanta out of the vending machine. Okay, now SMILE BIG. Not you, professor, just the girls. Say cheese!"
This IS staged, but really the only way you can tell is that everything in the lab is too clean.
Posted by: GeekLady | 26 January 2012 at 06:29 AM
Oh, and the girl pipetting is holding it at the wrong angle, so she won't get an accurate reading. The only reason you'd pipet at an angle like that is if it was really viscous. Which it might be. It wouldn't surprise me that much if the orange stuff was some sort of concentrated HFCS that gets diluted into a large carboy of water, and would therefore contain some sort of intense coloring. Additive laced water is usually colored, so no one randomly mixes up the bottles between groups.
Posted by: GeekLady | 26 January 2012 at 06:38 AM
According to the caption on a photo lower down, the contents of the pipette is, in fact, orange soda.
I am personally horrified and revolted by the idea of putting a product intended for human consumption in labware at all.
Posted by: bearing | 26 January 2012 at 07:57 AM