Extras · 1 of 4

A typical shift

Log in the samples that arrived overnight, then run the daily calibration and quality control checks on your instruments. After that it is a queue: weigh, dilute, extract, inject, read. You record every step, because in an accredited lab an unrecorded step did not happen. If a result fails a control, you stop and work out whether it was the sample, the method or the machine. By late afternoon you are entering results and getting tomorrow's batch ready.