• Question: why do scientists wear white lab coats

    Asked by anon-190901 to Kathryn, Graeme, Chris, Anne, Agnes, Adam on 13 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Graeme Poole

      Graeme Poole answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      We wear lab coats to protect us from harmful chemicals. They are white so it is easy to see if we spill anything on it.

    • Photo: Agnes Wojtusiak

      Agnes Wojtusiak answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      If you go to my profile and open up “My Typical Day”, you can actually see that my lab coat is NOT white! It’s a dark blue 😀
      .
      And I only wear it in the lab, no need for it most of the day. Our lab coats aren’t to protect us from chemicals, but it’s to protect the laser FROM US (and keep it clean)

    • Photo: Anne Green

      Anne Green answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      Not all scientists wear lab coats! (I haven’t worn a lab coat since I did A-level chemistry). I’m a theoretical physicist which means I do calculations instead of experiments and I don’t need a lab coat to protect me from my equations!

    • Photo: Adam McGuinness

      Adam McGuinness answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      I wear mine because I deal with cells and liquids, and if I spill them on me they can go bad and ruin my other experiments, so the white shows up spills so I know to put my coat in the wash!

    • Photo: Kathryn

      Kathryn answered on 13 Nov 2018:

      To protect skin and clothes form harmful chemicals. I don’t wear a lab coat unless I am doing something particually messy or using dangerous chemicals.

      Same reason you would use goggle and gloves.

      If you see a scientist on TV or in pictures wearing one, they usually have been asked to wear one to look sciency, unless they are using chemicals.

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