Near Escapes from Disasters Today

1. The 20x objective lens of the Raman microscope in my lab has a tiny working distance. It's less than 1 mm. After I was done with the sample, I turned the knob of microscope's focus the wrong way. I could have used more agility and resolution like this in a lot of my other actions. But this time before I could realise what was going on, my sample was crushed by the objective lens with a resonating crack. Next to my sample was a pile of pretty purplish black crystals, some oxide of manganese which was under examination by the previous user (I was lazy and didn't want to get my own quartz glass slide, so just placed my sample on that slide). They were sent flying by the vibration. I was terrified and blamed the music on the lab computer for distraction. Wiped lens, checked its focus and it appeared alright. However still apprehensive of the prospective of forsaking whole year of salary for compensation of the lens.

2. Supervisor came to ask me to go to lunch together. I had my earphones on as usual and was thrown into a panic (they were Sony earplugs with silicone fittings that block out external sound. Perilous in office when cubicle lacks privacy). So threw off earphones and head off for lunch. Came back to realise that one of the plugs was projected into a cup of water and had been soaking there for an hour. For a while thought this to be retribution for the microscope. After repeated rounds of slinging, rubbing, dapping and blowing earphone was ok, albeit a little moist in the ear and rendered different audio effects in one ear.