To most people, working as a scientist may be seen as a brain-draining and mentally-demanding job inside a laboratory. But scientists don’t always stay cooped inside highly-controlled research centers. Many do field work as well, and sometimes, things don’t happen exactly as it was planned.

Since last week, workers in the science industry have been sharing their craziest, and sometimes most embarrassing experience on the field on Twitter using the hashtag #fieldworkfail.

Scientists, as it turns out, don’t always have it all together. They can’t always figure things out, as in these contributions below.

This post from Carrie Cizauskas is one of the most popular contributions:

This failure caused thousands of dollars due to double tagging. Ouch.

This also looked pretty painful.

Even a psychologist had her own #fieldworkfail.

Ever wonder how those archaeologists move the artifacts they find? It’s not always easy, apparently.

Sometimes, science doesn’t bring us anything interesting…

There are budget issues, too!

And of course, work-related safety threats which a co-worker may find amusing, rather than concerning.

“We all have loads of stories like this,” said Rosie Woodroffe, a researcher with the Zoological Society of London via The Atlantic. She also tweeted her contribution.

Woodroffe also shared the full story on what really happened when her team mistakenly trapped a lion instead of a jackal on the field in The Atlantic report.

Last June, female scientists initiated a #DistractinglySexy trend on Twitter by posting photos of themselves at work. This was in response to a sexist comment made by Nobel Prize winner Tim Hunt, as reported by HNGN.

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