Don't eat the doughnuts!

Last week, as my boss John and I were walking past our lunch room, I noticed that lab next to ours must have had a meeting there earlier: delicious doughnut smells wafted out. I peeked in and saw that they'd left several glistening doughnuts. My mouth filled with water.

"Oh wow... they just left doughnuts there..." I murmured, very tempted to pick at the leftovers.

John hears this and stops in his tracks.

"Never eat doughnuts lying around here!" I looked at him with confusion. He went to tell me a (true?) story that happened right here at the NIH.

Apparently a post-doctorate student has worked for years without any recognition. When his supervisor decided to publish his results--without acknowledging him--that was the last straw. The next time his lab had a coffee & doughnuts meeting, he sneaked out and sprinkled the doughnuts with sodium fluoride, a toxic powder which looks very much like sugar. Pretty soon the researchers started suffering from stomach cramps and bouts of vomiting, and where admitted to the hospital.

There wasn't enough evidence to detain the wronged post-doc, but apparently his contract wasn't renewed!