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My doctorate supervisor was fond of telling me that I had to keep a good lab notebook in case I “walked under a bus” one morning. Although I was utterly convinced of the necessity of accurate records, somehow this particular exhortation didn’t have quite the desired effect on my attitude. Maybe he should have warned of the dangers of hurricanes or earthquakes (although to be fair, neither are as dangerous in Oxford as the busses).

There’s an interesting poll over at BenchFly, Are You Prepared for the ‘Worst Case Scenario’? In other words, what are the chances of recovering your lab from a Fukushima or Katrina (or Irene)-style disaster?

This of course goes beyond good notes–it involves personnel and reagents and equipment. It’s bad enough when you have to dash to the lab at 4 in the morning because a minus 80 freezer has decided to give out, but imagine losing everything. How well protected are you?

What are your recovery plans?

(While thinking about this post I also came across the Deathwatch list from the Archive Team. And that made me think–just how well backed-up are journal websites, especially online-only ones?)