Science Revolution

I came across to epMotion the other day. Apparently it is an automated pipetting machine made by Eppendorf. I guess it was inevitable fate for any industry to have some kind of revolution. Just like Industrial revolution, eventually “Science Revolution” will be here to replace Lab techs like me. We will need to get a completely new set of training to manage all these machines instead of pieptting 1ul samples ourselves.
Should we embrace the revolution? or reject it? I guess we don’t have a choice but rather need to prepare and accept the fact.

How to dissolve a high molar urea without getting precipitation? part 2

At last I figured out how to dissolve a high molar urea without getting precipitation for a long time.

The reason I need a high molar urea is to strip a nitrocellulose membrane over night but the high concentration urea kept precipitating after couple of hours.

I think the answer was air. As long as the high concentration urea (I tried 9 M) do not get in contact with air, it is ok even in a low temperature for a long time. I left it overnight and there is still no precipitation as I am typing. (Almost 24 hours by now)

Take a look at the picture below. I sealed it in a bag and let it rocking on a platform. No precipitation what so ever!!

How to dissolve a high molar Urea without getting precipitated?

I have been trying different methods to dissolve a high concentration of urea (9M-12M), but keep getting precipitation.

I think I have found a method to make the urea solution that will not precipitate for at least several hours or even couple of days.

1) Warm up H2O (microwave or hot plate) to substantial degree so that whatever amount of urea is added will be dissolved
2) Add urea and dissolve (make sure it is completely dissolved)
3) Let it cool down slowly and gradually to room temperature

I have also tried different combinations without success

Variation1
1) Start with cold water
2) Add urea and dissolve it as the water gets warmed up on hot plate
3) Let it cool down slowly and gradually to room temperature

Comment: Probably the cold water is not a good idea.

Variation2
1) Start with hot water (microwaved)
2) Add urea and stir
3) The water temperature is not hot enough so microwaved the whole thing (did not use hot plate so could not maintain the same water temperature)
4) Dissolve it completely this time and let it cool down slowly and gradually to room temperature

Comment: Probably some urea particles are not dissolved completely the first time and re-warming does not help. Even though it dissolves urea completely, the solution precipitate very fast with 1 hour after cool down.
In other words, you need to dissolve urea completely the first time. For whatever reason (most likely low water temperature), if it does not dissolve the first time it will not work.

Variation3
1) Start with hot water (microwaved or hot plate)
2) Add urea and stir, completely dissolved
3) Cool it down with ice (monitor it so that it does not drop beyond room temperature) then leave it on the bench to cool down to room temperature.

Comment: cooling it down with ice is not a good idea. Even if you take it out from ice around 50 degree C and let it sit on a bench until it cools down to room temperature, it still precipitates pretty fast after complete cool down.

I wonder if someone out there have/had a same/similar problem making high concentration urea solution.

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Sep 2012 Follow up: 
I have actually found a perfect solution to this problem.

1) Warm up water in microwave

2) Add urea (solid)

3) COVER THE BEAKER (or any other types of container you are using) so it won't get in contact with air then place the beaker on a heat stirrer. Keep the water hot but not boiling and keep stirring the solution until urea is dissolved.

4) Keep the solution in air tight container so the solution won't come in contact with air.

The way to cool down the solution was not the issue after all. The secret is to avoid contact with air.


My new personal blog

Life goes on....

So how is everyone surviving in this financial crisis? Anyone got laid off or see someone got laid off? Well, it is happening in real time everywhere even in Science business.

If you are the only lab tech in the lab then you probably already knows you are OK until your boss's grant money runs out. Unfortunately for those Post-Docs, they are the first ones to go. This saddens me as they are probably the ones work harder and longer hours and yet, they are the first ones to go.

I remember someone told me once that Science job is a relatively stable job than other jobs. It probably is true to some degree (since we don’t get paid as much to start with compare to other fields considering the qualifications that we need to get to go into Science field), but I guess this financial crisis have created a once in a life time opportunity for us to witness “No body is safe” situation.

Well, stay warm and let’s hope to hear a good news sooner than later.

Do they do this on purpose or.....?

Take a look at these pictures. What do you think they are?

Don't they look like........ Well, I am going to leave it to your imagination.

Picture source
http://www.the-scientist.com/2008/

IT (Incompetent Technical) support

This is probably a common problem in any kind of industry. It does not matter what company or organization you work for, for some reason, IT personnel are almost always "the target" of everyone. (at least that's the impression I get from watching TV, talking to people, and hearing stories from other people)
After our previous Mac specialist was fired mysteriously (he was doing a really good job from our perspective but for some reason the IT department fired him anyways), we haven't had a good experience with the IT department.

Here are few of the problems that I can think of right off my head:
1) They have two different numbers, one for the central (entire hospital complex) and the other one for the local (the hospital building that our lab is located). A work number is assigned after calling the IT department and they would forward to the right person. This process alone takes weeks sometimes.

2) Once the person in charge gets the query, he/she sometimes has to search for contact information of the person who requested the problem. Apparently, the operators who answer the phone don't forward that (or forget to ask) sometimes.

3) There is no way for us to check the status of our request. The only way to find out is call the support center, then they check the computer to see if the IT person in charge has left a note or not.

I wonder if this happens everywhere too.......

Are we going "Green" yet...in the lab?

Thanks to global warming and Al Gore?! Everyone is going "Green" these days. Even here at our hospital (our research institution share the hospital building that is split between clinical wing and research wing) is starting to change lighting to more environmental friendly ones and putting up light switches in rooms where there was no light switch before!!

Yes, that's right, the room had no light switch so the light was CONSTANTLY ON!!


On the other hand, recycling in the US has been and I think still is way behind may other developed counties. There still are not as many recycling centers (I lived in the UK for sometime and they had facilities where people can bring stuff to for recycling) and not as many regulations for the waste (I lived in Japan for sometime and they had an excellent waste recycling instruction from the local government/authorities) .

You may wonder what all these have to do with the lab.

I was cleaning our 4 degree fridge today and had to throw away almost 20 bottles of old media. The bottles that I threw away were all plastics and I had no way to recycle them. I also started to notice the amount of plastics that we produce everyday (pipets, plastic bottles, plastic tubes). It is true that some of them are biohazard (contaminated with cells, blood etc) but what if we could at least separate the ones we know that are recyclable? such as the media bottles that I thew away?

I wonder how much hassle it will casue to set up a policy within the hospital to start recycle plastic? It may not be practical and potentially dangerous (due to potential contamination) but it is maybe worth at least bring it up and talk about it?

I wonder........