What does a science lab smell like?

Answer 1

Depends on what the people working the lab have been doing recently. Once a year our school chemistry labs used to smell like Oranges because we'd do an experiment to separate out limonene. The Physics labs always smelt of coffee (mostly because all the technicians used to go and sit in their prep room and drink coffee). As to the lab where I currently work - it varies. If someone's growing bacteria it smells of marmite, our tissue culture smells of cleaning chemicals, and sometimes it just whiffs of beta-mercaptoethanol (which stinks). I'm sure physicists might tell you their labs smell of nothing. The chemists probably have the most interesting smells of the lot, but again, it varies. Personally, if it whiffs too much and I can, I put it in a fume cupboard.