Day-to-Day Considerations

Safety

Working in a laboratory can be dangerous, but as long as you follow the protect yourself, you can work safely. Depending on what procedure that you are working on exactly, there are specific personal protective equipment that you can wear to limit your exposure to possible hazards.

Learning

Summer research opportunities are for you to learn - remember that. It is possible - and likely - that outside of the information you learn on a daily basis during you research experience, that there will be other information that you will need to seek on your own. There will always be a class you haven't taken yet or a new concept you never heard of before that you may need to read on your own to better understand the work you are doing, and that's okay. Be ready to catch up on anything you can, and don't expect that your years of schooling so far will be all you need to be successful in your work.

Lab Notebooks

Keeping an accurate, detailed, and universal lab notebook is an incredibly important - sometimes overlooked - part of research. It is easy to get caught up in tasks and forget to keep a record of exactly what you've done during the day, but you must. The results you get hopefully will be publishable in the future, but will be useless if no one else can try to replicate your work because you cannot describe your methods or prove that you did complete them.

Accountability

The work you do matters, and so do your mistakes. Everyone messes up from time to time, especially if you are working in a laboratory - sometimes your hand will slip and a sample will be lost. How you handle your mistakes is what really counts. Own up to errors as soon as can to whoever you are working with in your lab, and likely it will be no issue, but they can help you fix what happened and continue on.

Confidentiality 

Many research groups are often studying the same questions, and collaborate to share their information and help each other. However, it is not okay to share information from your laboratory outside of those explicit collaborations, as it can compromise years of hard work. A famous example of someone breaking this code is when Maurice Wilkins shared Rosalind Franklin's x-ray crystallography diffractogram of DNA with Francis Crick and James Watson, which helped move their research forward at a rate they could not have otherwise. Be careful with what you share, and try to not be Maurice Wilkins.

Ethical Concerns

In laboratory research, you will likely be working with sensitive information, especially with patients when you are conducting medical research. There are systems in place to minimize who actually views that information, but if you are someone who comes in contact with it, it is your obligation to keep that information private since those patients have trusted you with their health. A lot of biological research also requires the use of model organisms. The best way to deal with such research is to cause the least harm and stress to the organisms you are working with as possible.