Not long ago, this column turned a spotlight on the hashtag , used to highlight tweets from academics confessing the guilty secrets of their research methods.

It was started by , the Twitter pseudonym of a research neuropharmacologist at a ¡°specialized research institute¡±, who confessed that in one case, ¡°incubation lasted three days because this is how long the undergrad forgot the experiment in the fridge¡±.

More recently another hashtag, , has been used on tweets that do exactly what the name suggests ¨C offer startling admissions from supposedly authoritative and respected scientists.

¡°I have fallen asleep operating a $250 million dollar telescope,¡± said Alex Lockwood (), a graduate student in planetary sciences at the California Institute of Technology.

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Chris Thompson (), a molecular biologist at Imperial College London, had news for his presumably hyperactive colleagues. ¡°When I make the coffee, I secretly add an extra 2?scoops so that everyone in my group will work faster,¡± he?declared.

Jack A. Gilbert (), associate professor (part-time) in the University of Chicago¡¯s department of ecology and evolution, managed to squeeze two confessions into his tweet, demonstrating a worrying inability to learn from his mistakes. ¡°Forgot to secure rotor in old centrifuge which came off at 10,000 rpm causing extreme damage,¡± he said, ¡°then did it again 2 weeks later.¡±

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Research confessions appear to be common in the Gilbert clan. James Gilbert, a postdoctoral researcher in entomology at the University of Sydney, revealed: ¡°Instead of reporting the feral mouse we found in the lab, we caught it, kept it as a pet and called it Chairman Mouse.¡±

A PhD student at Oxford Brookes University was one of many scientists who took the opportunity to attest to an ability to make elementary errors. ¡°Poured plates with LB broth instead of agar! Picked up wrong tub! Only twigged when they hadn¡¯t set after 2?hours!¡± Sam?Barry () tweeted.

Matteo Cavalleri () showed similar inattention to detail. ¡°I misspelled ¡®Department of Physics¡¯ on the back cover of my PhD Thesis,¡± admitted the editor-in-chief of the International Journal of Quantum Chemistry.

At first David Hughes (), assistant professor of entomology and biology at Pennsylvania State University¡¯s Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics, appeared to be using the hashtag to brag about his achievements. ¡°In a rainforest i found a?parasitoid (wasp) of a parasitic fly that eats parasitic fungi that kill ants,¡± he said, only to reveal: ¡°THEN I LOST IT!!!!¡±

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Other confessions were less dramatic. ¡°I broke a volumetric flask on purpose to avoid washing it,¡± said Jessica Wynn (), a second-year chemistry student at the University of York, while Jon Tennant (), studying for a PhD in tetrapod biodiversity and extinction at Imperial College London, revealed that he ¡°once hid an ammonite down [his] pants¡±, although he ¡°can¡¯t remember why¡±.

Send links to topical, insightful and quirky online comment by and about academics to chris.parr@tsleducation.com