Kill Strep Throat With Alcohol

Another brick in the lab

time ago I have in my possession a curious images I wanted to share, and I've finally found the right opportunity, we moved from the laboratory. For those who work in a laboratory molecular biology, chemistry or similar can imagine the trauma that this is, whether they have experienced or not. Recall that our daily work includes opening multiple refrigerators, freezers, storage boxes, racks full of tiny tubes, bottles and bottles of reagents more or less harmful to health, computers, devices rarunos, chairs, stools, beds and cupboards full of papers, files, books and more books. We, like any job, but with the added toxicity and the size of devices such as ultra-centrifuges, shakers, incubators, hoods or gas.

For all So touching move, and as a tribute to the site that has been my second home for the past two years, I will present you some pictures of a peak moment in the history of our campus: the day that changed the exterior of the center, and we the laboratory divided by a wall of shame (and plasterboard).

Batablanca also a fan of Pink Floyd.

Our laboratory had the advantage of having a beautiful view to the street, with the consequent entry of natural light jets is always welcome in contrast to the artificial dim white light. All that facade, not only windows, but the entire facade was to be demolished and built anew, so that progress and science does not stop, had the courtesy to isolate ourselves from such a mess of drywall nailing a low wall side by side Lab. This meant that the place normally intended to "study" are reduced and we cordially apiñásemos same bank behind the wall and losing sight of that forever daylight. It may sound silly, but during those months, he noticed a pretty big psychological fatigue, that enter and have the impression that vacuum packaging provided a pretty nasty claustrophobic. So we soon little things start to hang in various graffiti and the wall, to cheer life. From the first moment he remembered the glorious server Wall Pink Floyd, so I planted the logo of the masterpiece over the only opening to the outside, and a Batablanca resigned to its new status as part of the wall (in the picture that introduced the post).

seemed the very 13 Rue Goose Barnacle. The little door on the third floor metal was seen in the picture below.

door vacuum. Note the sign above right (right next to him "The Wall"), where the logo with a man stumbling and the legend "Danger - falling to another level" indicated the possibility of direct cast him down headlong to the ground, from third floor height. Well, I find little sign, do you want me to say.

My interpretation of that door and the friendly workers, small size, constantly coming and going through it. I remembered the beloved curries of Fraggle Rock Rock , but without spirit of fun as they did a great job and we were disturbed as little as possible.

MINSIX also were encouraged to translate their art with a drawing then used to manufacture a remember the day of his thesis. The others were also involved, hanging our proud flag and other ewes.

flag known to all and drawing MINSIX.

Finally, a Spiderman that I never finished, and the icing: a cartoon Calvin and Hobbes basely kidnapped (as I caught the Sinde ...!) to which I devoted some attention and is the only remnant of the wall that we have, for the friendly worker it was dismantled when everything came to a close I saw the caricature of sticks and asked, "Do you want to cut the kitten?", to which I nodded my little eyes lit up.

As we move to the new lab, I will finish the poor Calvin (following pencil today), we will look for a site and will post where they look good.

UPDATES: wrote this entry last week, during which we have begun and completed the move. When we are fully located and Calvin and Hobbes box hung in a cool place, I'll write another post with new pictures, if the opportunity arises (come on, if I get there).

also during these days mate eulez is reviewing the great album by Pink Floyd on his blog , in several installments. Do not miss it, know whether the work or not.

Berlinwood Fingerboard Recipe

TERRIBLE

This post comes from the wrath of the biologist or biochemist who, immersed in their daily work in the laboratory, must cope with all kinds of unicellular organisms to move forward with its investigation. This is the story of one scientist who is suffering from the riots and uprisings of agencies with which it works, and how to give them what they deserve if they were your size .

not have much to do with the post, but this is what happens when you charge the graphic to Dr . Litos .

is known by everyone durra with yeast (eg: Gender Saccharomyces) or bacteria (eg: Gender Escherichia ) , or mammalian cell cultures (eg: HEK 293) that these beings seem simple, sometimes wield free will, and do what they please. No matter what the dilute, transform them, the amount of antibiotic that you put them, or serum they take off. They grow as the speed at which they place, passing by lining the standardized growth curves and generation times. In short, you stick crops days behind trying to catch the optical density (OD ) adequate ( OD = 0.5) to work and / or experience with them. In the end, most scientists seem paparazzi. This called despair to anger, and anger leads to the Dark Side ... by So, instead of delighting our experiments by burning the eternal flame of bunsen , or drown in absolute ethyl alcohol or 70% in unequal fight and inadequate compensation , a battle cry more just, as an equal, self-contact sports (Muhammad Ali vs George Foreman ) or comic ( Spiderman vs Octopus, see introductory image), or former duels ( Íñigo Montoya vs Man in Black or Vader vs Skywalker). But there will be fair, because nature is very wise and has given us no yeast bacteria and / or cells of eukaryotes upper reach about 60-80 kg weight. At first it was funny and even hilarious imagine / giving us Smite a yeast and / or bacteria of 70 kg ... to release the accumulated anger ... the style sac boxing ... What fools we were! If bodies of such size, materials and build there ... far from being a fair contest, would be a David versus Goliath , A Perseus against Medusa, an Ahab against Moby Dick ... and not just win that always wins ...

The dream of Banchsinger: crush a bare-knuckle yeast.

Let's do an experiment

insílico : Putting these unicellular organisms to human scale ... but first know its size and shape standard, and I say standard because, although in a laboratory working with clonal populations (ie, with exactly the same genetic material), when viewed under a microscope, each individual has the shape and size is not exactly like your neighbor ( it's like when you look at a car, all cars respond to a morphology, but find very few that are exactly alike, although all are of the same brand). Before you start maybe we could use a review of " of sizes and shapes (I) ." Let's see: a yeast strain we use as an example the most widely used in scientific research, and in baking, Saccharomyces cerevisiae . This body has an ellipsoidal shape , long diameter of 5 to 10 mm and diameter short of 1 to 7 microns and usually represent a large mother cell together with a gem, which is the daughter cell growth. The volume of the mother is around 30 μm3 for haploid strains (with only one copy of genetic material) or 60 μm3 ara the diploid (two copies of genetic material), the density is slightly higher than 1000 Kg / m3. A prominent feature of all fungi is the presence of cell wall that covers its outer membrane. In S. cerevisiae this wall is between 0.1 and 0.2 microns and is extremely resistant mechanical and chemical attacks.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae : scheme and photograph of electronic microscopy

A bacteria, even here we use the example of the strain most commonly used in scientific research, and is present in our skin and our digestive tract, Escherichia coli . This body as pelunchón lake and round 2 micron diameter and 0.8 mm 1 x 10-18 m3 volume, with a density close to 1000 kg / m3 and a weight near 1 x 10 (-15) Kg . These hairs roll stuffed bear cilia are fair, and longer ones are called flagella. Are functions of movement and propulsion. The flagella have a thickness of 0.02 microns and are subject to a rotor that can reach close to 20,000 rpm transmitting the scourge to 3000 rpm, propelling the bichillo up to 60 lengths of bacteria per second (depending on species and flagellar type of file.) E. coli, a bacterium Gram negative , also presents cell wall of 0.01 microns, a double bilayer lipid with a thin layer of peptidoglycan , a protein very tough. In bacteria Gram positive wall is approximately 80μm with a outer layer of peptidoglycan very thick, only a few, such as Helicobacter pylori (stomach ulcers capita), have flagella.

Escherichia coli : photography of electronic microscopy scheme

A man, Homo sapiens (?), Needless description. As an example, 80 kg human being (say I), of 1.77 cm high, normal complexion, and a volume to calculate, because as you understand , I going to get into a bathtub to Archimedes. The average density of the human body round 933 kg / m3 ( wikipedia). Volume = Mass / Density , which menda has a volume of 0.086 m3.

Perhaps the model is not best for Habar measures "standard" ...

Other examples descacharrentes here.

Well, knowing the reality, let's start the experiment. We will do something similar to what we have seen so often in documentary insects (uhhh if a man had the strength of an ant lift a tractor ...), that is, more or less reasonably extrapolate the characteristics of the wand. In our case we extrapolate the characteristics of the microlife : haploid yeast of 80 kg, 1.77 m long and 1.2 m in width would have a cell wall about 3 cm, consisting mainly chitin (insects and crustaceans incorporate it into their exoskeleton). Imagine a shield with the resistance (tough but flexible) of a shell crab paella, but 3 inches thick, which also would not be alone. The wall is associated on the inside of a periplasm fluid and a cell membrane, in total about 15-20% of the total volume of yeast, over 15 kg exoskeleton with high resistance mechanical aggression (see : lysis protocols mechanical for yeast). And without a soft or hollow part ... In short beat to beat yeast would as hitting a ball of water coated canvas for trucks with an armor vest anti 3 cm bullets ... ( bulletproof vest the police has a thickness of 0.2 to 0.5 cm). Come virtually impossible, unless it has a laser sword . And yes good , yeast does not move, could not do anything, but she does not we could do anything to us. However, things change drastically if instead of a harmless yeast us enfrentásemos a bacterium ... a E. coli of 80 kg, 1.77 m long and 0.7 m wide, was about flagella seemed a braided steel cables 2 to 5 cm diameter and 2 meters long, reach the 3000 rpm ... so that I would not put in the middle. addition to that, hundreds of cilia protejerían of cushioning any impact the blow, and if instead of E. coli, we face a H. pylori, the shell would be equal or stronger than that of the yeast ... so telita with stuffed bear .

Fight to the death between researchers and E. coli.

(Click to see bigger, but watch scary)

And what is even more blatant, these animals have the same power to weight ratio than a vehicle very high benefits and relative velocity in an aqueous fluid is the highest known to man for a living and for a sub machine aquatic . These bacteria cell reach 60 distances per second, that, if we ignore friction and the laws of viscous fluid displacement , translates to just under 120m / s, about 400 km / h. underwater machine more rapid has man invented a torpedo experimental that reaches about 400km / h using a system called Supercavitating , in short it does is create a bubble of air in front of the object, so the submarine object question is passed by the forrillo mechanical laws that govern the macro world .

short, if we no longer enfrentríamos a simple parr as pa ponermos front of our Bacteria size ... Acojonaos we have quedao ...

If Bruce Lee had known these E. coli, instead of saying "Be water my friend " had said, "Bacter Be my friend", for more options here.