What would Joseph wear in the lab?

Yale's Environmental Health and Safety department is sponsoring an "Amazing Technicolor Lab Coat" contest: members of the Yale community are invited to let their imaginations run wild as they decorate a lab coat of any color.

Lacking imagination myself, I could only think about the consequences of the original technicolor coat for its owner's environment, health, and safety. Fans of the musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (or its source material, the Book of Genesis) will recall that Joseph's beautiful coat of many colors got him kidnapped, nearly murdered, thrown into a pit, and then sold into slavery in Egypt.

I'm certain the lab coat contestants will suffer no such fate. However, I note that the prizes are gift cards from Apple. Turn back a few chapters in Genesis to learn about that hazard. . . .

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The Yale Alumni Magazine is published by Yale Alumni Publications Inc., an alumni-based nonprofit that is not run by Yale University. Its content does not necessarily reflect the views of the university administration.