University Going After the Green Over Lost Plant Research

A janitor destroyed decades of "ground-breaking" work by shutting off a lab freezer containing key samples over an "annoying" alarm sound, lawyers for a New York university said.  Lab samples stored at -80C were left "unsalvageable", causing $1m in damages.  The lab's school is suing the janitor's employer for improper training.

The company held a $1.4m contract to clean the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York back in 2020 which is when the incident happened, paper Times Union reported.  Research on photosynthesis, headed by Prof. K.V. Lakshmi, had the potential to be "ground-breaking" in furthering solar panel development.  A few days before the freezer was turned off, an alarm went off to warn of a 3C temperature rise. Though the fluctuation could have been catastrophic, Prof Lakshmi "determined that the cell cultures, samples and research were not being harmed." Due to Covid restrictions at the time, it would take a week before any repairs could begin.

In the meantime, a sign on the freezer's door read: "This freezer is beeping as it is under repair. Please do not move or unplug it. No cleaning required in this area. You can press the alarm/test mute button for 5-10 seconds if you would like to mute the sound."  But days after the alarm started sounding, the janitor turned off the circuit breaker providing electricity to the freezer. The majority of specimens that were meant to be kept at -80C (-112F) were "compromised, destroyed and rendered unsalvageable, demolishing more than 20 years of research", according to the lawsuit.

A report filed by public safety staff at the institute said the janitor thought he was flipping the breaker on when he actually turned it off, the New York Post reported.  The temperature rose by 50C (122F) by the time researchers discovered the error.   Lawyer Michael Ginsberg told NBC News that the cleaning employee heard "annoying alarms", and lawyers that interviewed him reported "he still did not appear to believe he had done anything wrong, but was just trying to help."