My father emigrated our family from Russia to the United States because while he was a post-doc in Moscow, the lab he worked in would sometimes lose power overnight. The lab didn't have any backup...
My father emigrated our family from Russia to the United States because while he was a post-doc in Moscow, the lab he worked in would sometimes lose power overnight. The lab didn't have any backup power, but my dad had contingency plans that he could put into action should the lab lose power. He did however need to be woken up so that he could go there and do what he needed to do.
The story goes that one night he lost a particularly precious sample due to a power outage because whoever was supposed to call him and wake him up didn't. This was at the tail end of Perestroika and American and Russian scientific institutions were on friendly terms, so my dad applied to work as a scientist in the US. He was accepted and my whole family moved to the US in 1994.
It's crazy to think that the thing that drove my family out of Russia is the same thing that is happening now in the United States.
This is just ridiculous on the labs/schools part then. A backup generator for critical systems that require energy should have been in place for any natural disaster already. We have earthquakes,...
This is just ridiculous on the labs/schools part then. A backup generator for critical systems that require energy should have been in place for any natural disaster already. We have earthquakes, fires and floods that could knock out power, if it’s that critical it should be safeguarded from the get go.
Yes: this appears to be a problem specific to Berkeley, and is the university's fault. While this loss of power is over an unusually large area for an unusually long time, more localized power...
Yes: this appears to be a problem specific to Berkeley, and is the university's fault. While this loss of power is over an unusually large area for an unusually long time, more localized power outages happen with some frequency. If you have experiments that would be destroyed by a loss of power, or fortunes of samples and reagents in freezers that would be destroyed from short term power losses, you need to have backup power, as your needs are far outside what any electrical company can provide, and your potential losses are far higher than what an electrical company can be expected to anticipate. What happens if someone digs in the wrong place, for example, or a power line gets knocked over?
As one scientist points out in the article, their grants actually required they have backup power, but it turns out Berkeley didn't have it. It's often something that university facilities will have on a large scale.
Our university (Caltech) has generators sufficient to power our entire building, and I think all buildings with labs here are the same way. Individual instruments that would suffer from even momentary power loss also have individual UPSs.
Yes, but some things are more important than others. This isn't life-critical stuff. According to the story, some labs were prepared, but not all. Some might be okay, but they won't know until...
Yes, but some things are more important than others. This isn't life-critical stuff. According to the story, some labs were prepared, but not all. Some might be okay, but they won't know until they can go in.
I'm wondering if we should have regular outages to test for stuff like this? I'm reminded of an important internal system at Google that scheduled an outage once a quarter, not because they needed one, but just for practice and to make sure everyone understood they needed to be ready.
Yeah, but even non “life-critical” stuff should be on a generator or have access to it if it otherwise means “chaos.” All these labs that might have issues are the ones that should have a backup....
Yeah, but even non “life-critical” stuff should be on a generator or have access to it if it otherwise means “chaos.”
All these labs that might have issues are the ones that should have a backup. If it’s enough to put your lab into “chaos” you should have a backup plan.
My father emigrated our family from Russia to the United States because while he was a post-doc in Moscow, the lab he worked in would sometimes lose power overnight. The lab didn't have any backup power, but my dad had contingency plans that he could put into action should the lab lose power. He did however need to be woken up so that he could go there and do what he needed to do.
The story goes that one night he lost a particularly precious sample due to a power outage because whoever was supposed to call him and wake him up didn't. This was at the tail end of Perestroika and American and Russian scientific institutions were on friendly terms, so my dad applied to work as a scientist in the US. He was accepted and my whole family moved to the US in 1994.
It's crazy to think that the thing that drove my family out of Russia is the same thing that is happening now in the United States.
This is just ridiculous on the labs/schools part then. A backup generator for critical systems that require energy should have been in place for any natural disaster already. We have earthquakes, fires and floods that could knock out power, if it’s that critical it should be safeguarded from the get go.
Yes: this appears to be a problem specific to Berkeley, and is the university's fault. While this loss of power is over an unusually large area for an unusually long time, more localized power outages happen with some frequency. If you have experiments that would be destroyed by a loss of power, or fortunes of samples and reagents in freezers that would be destroyed from short term power losses, you need to have backup power, as your needs are far outside what any electrical company can provide, and your potential losses are far higher than what an electrical company can be expected to anticipate. What happens if someone digs in the wrong place, for example, or a power line gets knocked over?
As one scientist points out in the article, their grants actually required they have backup power, but it turns out Berkeley didn't have it. It's often something that university facilities will have on a large scale.
Our university (Caltech) has generators sufficient to power our entire building, and I think all buildings with labs here are the same way. Individual instruments that would suffer from even momentary power loss also have individual UPSs.
Yes, but some things are more important than others. This isn't life-critical stuff. According to the story, some labs were prepared, but not all. Some might be okay, but they won't know until they can go in.
I'm wondering if we should have regular outages to test for stuff like this? I'm reminded of an important internal system at Google that scheduled an outage once a quarter, not because they needed one, but just for practice and to make sure everyone understood they needed to be ready.
Yeah, but even non “life-critical” stuff should be on a generator or have access to it if it otherwise means “chaos.”
All these labs that might have issues are the ones that should have a backup. If it’s enough to put your lab into “chaos” you should have a backup plan.