Lab Hack: Navigate the dark room using glow-in-the-dark tape

Techniques: western blot, dark room imaging

Field(s): Biochemistry, Biomedical

Submitted by: Genius Lab Gear Staff

Lab Hack:

Use small pieces of glow-in-the-dark phosphorescent tape to guide the researcher in the dark room. It helps everyone move faster, stop fumbling around and avoid mistakes! Use only as much as you need and keep it from line-of-sight to your films to avoid clouding. Another way is to write in Sharpie on the tape, where the Sharpie will block the glow and let you read labels in the dark!

There’s also anti-slip floor tape with a glow-in-the-dark stripe which can be useful if you have any tripping hazards in your dark room.

Make sure to test your typical exposed film time with the tape covered and uncovered to see if they are causing any clouding of your films before running experiments. If it causes problems, only use the tape on far walls for light switches, doors, etc.

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