fire drill

I was almost done with the anion-exchange chromatography step of my biochemistry lab when the fire alarm in the science building sounded. It wouldn't have been a big deal except that our professor told us to stay put and continue collecting fractions. The whole lab followed her directions and as the rest of the building evacuated we dutifully collected fractions. Finally, a few other chemistry professors asked us why we were not evacuating and as we explained to them that we were instructed to continue our experiment our lab prof informed us that the sirens were not a drill and we should actually leave. Since it has been snowing for the past two weeks in Michigan, we all huddled in the snow without our coats right outside the door of the building hoping we could return inside quickly. It turned out that some grey water dripped onto a sensor in the smoke detector system and set the alarms off but you would think that a bunch of science majors would know better than to 1) stay in the building during a fire alarm and 2) evacuate to approximately two inches away from the front door.