Sometimes I come across a stock photo that is unintentionally funny. Here is another one.

An artist’s rendition of how microbes grow in the intestinal tract. Here you can see bacteria circling around microvilli. Or are they shiny pills in straight lines circling around sausages, or decaying fingers in plastic gloves?

Same villi but different bacteria. It’s a Fecal Microbiota Transplant!

And this one has no bacteria at all. I guess it represents the Germ Free Mouse.

A biosafety cabinet is essentially a big box with a window and opening on the front, and an airflow from above that creates a “curtain” of air, to protect both the worker from the materials they are handling, as well as the materials from the worker. It is used for tissue culture, handling biohazardous materials, and sterile work.

It is usually not recommended that photographers crawl into biosafety cabinet to make that perfect shot. But that does not prevent the stock photo industry from doing just that!

So here we go: photos from inside biosafety cabinets. Note that some cabinets have windows on the side, which could explain some of these images. Other pictures might be perfectly explained by a little tripod or a selfie stick. But in most of these pictures, just pretend that the photographer is crawled up in a corner, for a good laugh.

The first photo is from the SafetyAtWorkBlog, where the caption reads: “A researcher works with materials in a biosafety cabinet in the Biosecurity Research Institute at Kansas State University. A biosafety cabinet is a safety enclosure that uses HEPA filters and directional airflow to contain pathogens.”

Shutterstock: “Young asian scientist pipetting samples in lab”, Copyright: KYTan:

A photo from the same lab worker shows up in Dreamstime, entitled “Young asian scientist performing microbial tests in lab” – credit: Tan Kian Yong:

Getty Images, credit: Javier Larrea. The caption reads: “Salmonella cultures in biosafety cabinet, Laboratory of Diagnosis, Departamento de Produccion y Sanidad Animal, Neiker Tecnalia, Instituto de Investigacion y Desarrollo Agrario, Ganadero, Forestal y del Medio Natural, Derio, Bizkaia, Euskadi, Spain”:

Penn State News:  “Tyler Goralski, a graduate student studying biochemistry and molecular biology at Penn State, streaks out a bacteria sample at the Pell Laboratory for Advanced Biological Research.” – Image: Patrick Mansell:

AFP Getty Images, found on Daily Mail, in an article about Indonesia and HIV. The caption reads: “Awareness about HIV in Indonesia remains poor despite the fact that more than 660,000 people are estimated to be living with the virus. Pictured is a medical laboratory technician at an HIV care hospital in Indonesia”:

From 123RF: “Female scientist researching in laboratory, pipetting cell culture medium samples in laminar flow. Life science professional grafting bacteria in the pettri dishes. Photo taken from laminar interior.”. Copyright : kasto:

Also from 123RF possibly the same model: “Female scientist researching in laboratory, pipetting cell culture samples on LB agar medium in laminar flow. Life science professional grafting bacteria in the petri dishes.” Copyright : kasto:

From Alamy, “Plate culture in laminar flow cabinet. Biological test laboratory. Fundacion Inasmet-Tecnalia. Donostia, San Sebastian”: