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Comment by the__alchemist | Hacker News Reader

Warning to anyone who goes down this rabbit hole: If you set up a home lab, don't tell people who you're not close with. There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly. I wish this wasn't the case, but as a society, we're not ready to talk about bio outside of institutions and universities.

Also, the costs are deceptive, even with used or Chinese parts: I estimate $10k USD for a usable molecular bio lab, including equipment and reagents.

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> There's a very good chance they'll assume you're (if they're a normie) making coronavirus or meth, and (If they're a biologist or chemist) assume you're not disposing of reagents and cultures properly.

I don’t have a full bio lab but I do have a lot of various lab equipment and do things at home that aren’t typical hobbyist projects. I haven’t found this to be a problem at all.

I also don’t mentally segregate the world into “normies”, which honestly helps a lot. In my experience people who develop a chip on their shoulder about their geek hobbies and start describing other people as “normies” bring a lot of these problems upon themselves. It helps a lot to just talk to people like peers and also know when people just aren’t interested in talking about your certain hobbies.

Great points. I've heard the term used in different context, and don't consider it a pejorative.

I don't think GP does either, other than 'self-perjorative'. At least that's how I see it - a sort of semi-self-deprecating acknowledgement that the speaker is not 'a normie' (whatever that means, really).

The root problem is segregating the world into buckets like that.

Whether its being used in the condescending version or the self-deprecating version is beside the point. When you go into social situations sizing people up as “normie” or not the preconceived ideas about the other people become an obstacle for communication.

That's a noble perspective for sure, but it won't help much when that nosy busybody from down the street Mrs. Smith notices you're bringing some sciencey looking stuff into your garage late one evening and she starts telling the neighbours that you're making meth.

Not everyone is in an environment where they can rationally explain their non-standard hobbies to their neighbours without judgment and no amount of treating a person like Mrs. Smith as a peer is going to stop her from spreading the kinds of rumours that result in a police investigation into them.

Unfortunately some people live in environments where others are just itching to recreate the Salem witch trials.

Is this a hypothetical or is it based on real events? My dad has pieces of retired distillation apparatus from a plant that does chemical research and also manufactures codeine. Definitely the condenser, and maybe also the round-bottom flask. He's left them sitting above his TV for years, in plain view. My mum has a binocular microscope and a box of precision scales sitting near the kitchen table. Nobody has ever commented on any of this except to say how neat the glassblowing is, etc.

I'm sure some people do live in modern-day Salem equivalents, but I bet a lot more people think they do.

It depends where you are. If you're in the upper middle class neighborhood you can probably get away with it. People will think you're brewing your own alcohol or some other eccentric hobby.

If you do this in a poor neighborhood that's had a problem with meth houses, you'll, either get the police kicking down your door, or you'll get the methheads breaking in and stealing your equipment.

Trying to compare what happens in the AU vs US might not work out well.

The parent comment was explicitly about telling other people.

Not some imagined scenario with a nosey neighbor seeing you shuffle lab equipment into the garage under cover of darkness. That’s a scenario hatched out of watching TV shows.

Regardless, it doesn’t matter that much if the one nosey neighbor starts spreading rumors. Unlike the movies and TV, the rest of your neighbors already know that the nosey neighbor is prone to fits of imagination, speculation, and prejudice. Nothing comes of it. Go on with your life.

Like you, I find the more I talk to people about what I’m doing (without going beyond their level of interest), the less they’re spooked. Especially when I’m prepared to talk about how I’ve thought seriously about safety.

Whereas the more people just happen to see stuff that’s unfamiliar to them, the more they imagine movie tropes to explain it. Sneakiness and a “you wouldn’t get it” attitude just code you as obnoxious, and color their assumptions accordingly…

You know, after pondering this, I think we're making progress. For example, I haven't heard the bare PCB and/or wires = bomb trope in years! Know your audience, as you imply. If asked what you like to do for fun or hobbies, selectivity in the response and assessing the situation helps!

Yeah, trying to create one right now to try to do some E Coli + Desnoyer’s style flower experiments.

I really underestimated the cost

The reagent shipping costs are a big one I underestimated! Or making sure the fuge you get does 10k g etc

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