#micropipette use

[turtle-tries-to-study]

science at sixth form 4/4

[buriedabitdeeperthanshallow]

listen i may be training to be a mad scientist but i would NEVER violate lab safety protocols unless it was really funny

[catboybiologist]

Watching House MD in the background while I grade, and did 13 just do an injection on House using a fucking micropipette?

[hylianengineer]

Sometimes when my lab orders chemicals they come in these ridiculous cubes. Nearly a foot on each side, made of flexible plastic, with the cap in the middle of one side. I'm not sure what their capacity is but I'd guess at least five liters or around a gallon.

Anyways, back when we still had a lab manager, she accidentally ordered sulfuric acid in a cube. We don't use a lot of sulfuric acid, usually about 50ml at a time. The cube is still here. The cube is over three-quarters full. It has been a full year since we had a lab manager. The cube has outlasted her.

The other reason the cube is still here is because you can't just pick it up and pour out of it like you would a normal chemical bottle. It's too heavy and unwieldy. You have to pipette out of it. It's incredibly obnoxious and really only feasible if you have a 1-10ml micropipette. Or maybe larger, I guess, but I've never seen a micropipette bigger than that. Anyways, the 1-10ml one is in high demand and sometimes people borrow it and forget to return it and then I have to use the normal sulfuric acid instead of The Cube. The cube is not going anywhere. The cube will outlast us all.

I still think it's a dumb way to package chemicals, though.

[honeybeezgobzzzzz]

🌕 Blood Moon: Chapter One

Blood Moon: Blood Moon: You have been defying nature, and perhaps, even the Gods. After returning to life because of Tony Stark’s sacrifice, all humans now have a designation: alpha, beta, or omega. Angry at the fate you’ve been given, you decide that you will do anything to ensure that your fate is in your own hands. You’ll soon find out that it is never a good idea to tamper with fate, especially when one man makes it his mission to ensure that you understand that you can try to out-fly your destiny, but fate will eventually catch up to you.

Warnings: Language.

To Note: A/B/O Universe Post Snap, Zemo x NAMEDFemale!Reader, Timeline Of Events Is More Spread Out (Weeks Rather Than Days) To Fit Plot Line.

Word Count: ~4.0k

Masterlist | Next

When the snap happened, you were one of the ones who dissolved to ash. It was hard to decide if you were the unlucky one, or if you were lucky that you hadn’t spent five years knowing that half of human life had disappeared. Time hadn’t passed for you when you had been gone. But something had happened in that blink of an eye, and when you returned, everything had changed, even human biology.

You had known you were fighting a losing battle, but perseverance had pulled through before, so you had stood by your friends. Standing by them was the least you could do after everything they had done for you since the ousting of Hydra in Shield. You had been a simple chemist, working on different types of chemical compounds and conducting research for Shield.

Disgust.

You had been disgusted with yourself upon learning that everything you had been working towards was being used by Hydra. You were young, inexperienced in the work field, and fresh out of college, but you knew chemistry. Hydra exploited that.

So, when you got back and were thrown into a world that had advanced in age and now worked under a new biological society, you took matters into your own hands and refused to follow any other fate than what you decided. No one was going to take the power of choice away from you.

No one.

Your micropipette was as steady as your gaze while you pressed half a milliliter of compound into the base of your latest experiment. Batch 336 showed promise of extending the effects of your OS-163 serum. At the moment, the OS-291 suppression lasted eight hours. Compared to how you first started out, it was pretty impressive considering you were doing this all by yourself.

Initially, the side effects had been mood swings, weight gain, nausea, headache, and migraines. Clinically speaking, it was pretty bad. While the serum lasted several days, and at one point, an entire week, dealing with the side effects was too much to handle, considering you were hiding this project from everyone.

The physical effects were terrible, and your friends were bound to notice.

So OS-71 had been scrapped for OS-80, a more reliable serum that reduced the treatment time but lessened the side effects. But you were a perfectionist and wouldn’t be satisfied until you had the perfect serum. It was a give and take project.

If you reduced the side effects, the treatment didn’t last as long, and vice versa.

Treatment every twelve hours wasn’t the end of the world. It was like taking pills or vitamins… you just couldn’t run the risk of forgetting. Missing a dose wasn’t the end of the world, but noses were a lot sharper than they used to be.

Taking a deep breath, you grabbed a stirring rod and mixed the base and compound together until the mixtures slowly dissolved into one clear one. Further progress. You just couldn’t get rid of the acrid medicinal smell that wafted from the seemingly harmless liquid. It was far from harmless and, if injected into anyone other than its intended group, could do a lot of damage.

Setting the stirring rod aside, you grabbed the beaker and brought it near your nose to take a whiff. Still smelled like chemicals with a hint of progestin, but not nearly as noxious as it used to. Further testing would see if the treatment time had been extended. Taking the beaker, you rolled over to your vent hood and stoppered it before moving the vent hood closed.

You glanced at the clock; it was after seven in the evening. Few people would be out and about in the building, but the city nightlife was only just starting. Your stomach was telling you that it was hungry, so dinner was your next plan.

Cleaning up your lab from the day’s work, you put everything away and turned off the lights before switching your lab coat for your tailored jacket Tony had insisted he buy you. Well, if you were to be honest, he had insisted on buying you everything after Shield had fallen. He had taken you in like you were a little sister to him, and had even set up this amazing lab for you so you could use your skills to do good.

Now you used the lab to honor his name, and as much as you disliked the brand names on your clothes, you couldn’t help but wear them because he had gotten them for you. It was all sorts of messed up, considering the secrets you had kept from him and the fact that you had harbored Bucky, Sam, and Steve when they had been on the run.

You had been a terrible sister to him, but he had never kicked you out. You knew you disappointed him with your close relationship with Bucky, but Tony had seen you as family.

Walking out of the lab, you meandered down the silent hallway of your lab and stood in front of the elevator. It was a Wednesday night; Bucky was probably at that restaurant with Yori, having dinner as usual. As private and gruff as he was, you don’t think he would mind if you popped by for a visit.

You went and found the nearest subway and rode it across the city and to Brooklyn before popping up on the streets and walking the rest of the way to Izzy. Upon entering the restaurant, you waved at Leah, the server who seemed to live in the restaurant, before walking over to Bucky and Yori, who were already at their seats.

“Room for one more?” you questioned lightly.

“Diana! Sit, sit!” Yori called cheerfully. You flashed him a smile before pulling out the seat next to Bucky.

“Brooding as usual, Bucky? It won’t kill you to smile, you know,” you commented to him while boosting yourself up into your seat. Leah came over with a cup of tea, and you thanked her before turning back to Bucky.

“Hello to you too, Di,” Bucky grumbled, flashing you a wolfish smile before resuming his naturally vacant face.

“That was not a smile,” you huffed at him before looking him up and down with a raised eyebrow. “When was the last time you got laid?”

Yori snorted and slapped Bucky on the back.

“Too long!” you received another bitch face from Bucky as Yori chortled.

“You know I’m serious about that, right?” you reminded him. “You’re an alpha. That sort of thing is supposed to be a stress relief, isn’t it?”

“That’s a lot of talk coming from a beta who doesn’t have to deal with the hormones. What do you have to worry about? Betas don’t get the hormonal fluctuations alphas and omegas do,” Bucky snorted, grabbing his beer and taking a drink. “I get headaches from the concentration of hormones.”

“You have to be the only alpha in the world that actually complains about being an alpha,” you said dryly, ignoring the comment about not suffering from the hormonal effects of a heat. “You have the pick of the pack, and probably the entire attention of every lone omega in the city…”

“Which isn’t that many since they’re so rare…” Bucky chipped in. You ignored him.

“Why are you still punishing yourself?” He gave you a look that was full of self-loathing and didn’t counter your words. “You still seeing Dr. Raynor?”

“You still using medicine as perfume? How many times do I tell you to spend less time in your lab…” You glared at each other.

“Okay, you two, don’t argue,” Yori interceded. “But Diana is right, James, you should go on a date.”

“No, no—“ he and Yori got into it while Leah dropped off a bowl of your favorite soup. While you quietly ate, your two friends provided comic relief from the daily stresses of your life. Bucky’s comment about you always smelling like medicine wasn’t unusual, but it was a painful reminder of how far you would go to live a normal life, a life Tony said he wanted you to live.

Slurping up the broth of your soup, you heard a noise of triumph from Yori, and one of Bucky’s signature sighs. Sounds like Bucky now has a date.

“Pot meet kettle James?” you quipped underneath your breath. Bucky glared at you.

Batch-336 was a success, so it was now OS-336. You were down to two injections a day and feeling more confident about your work. You were close to figuring out how to extend the treatment times, but more research into that had to be put on hold. You were once again being asked for assistance.

Sam was not happy that Bucky had shown up, and when you appeared, he was livid. But you had also gotten good at dishing out resting bitch faces. You simply fluttered by with your bag over your shoulder and ignored the protests pouring from Sam’s mouth.

It had been a long flight to Munich, especially with a man who had a staring problem and another who was in denial that Bucky and you had tagged along. In your defense, you were going after terrorists who were way too strong to be regular humans. Sam wasn’t happy with you, especially with you tagging along since you weren’t the most skilled with weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

It was probably his alpha personality. They were protective and instinctually tried to work alone. Having two working on one problem was bound to cause problems, and at the very least, cause them to butt heads like they were.

You just sat back and crossed your arms, looking between the two of them in amusement as their passive-aggressive comments and ignoring reached an all-time high.

“How long could they keep that up?” Joaquin asked as he came to sit next to you. He was a beta that worked closely with Sam and was helping him track down the Flag Smashers.

“Longer than you might think,” you answered in amusement. “What exactly were we doing out here?”

“Intel on the Flag Smashers,”

“I figured as such, but why so much effort?”

“We think they might be Steve strong,” he explained. Your face darkened, and you chewed your lip. Someone had cracked the serum to make more super soldiers?

“That would pose a problem, and one Sam wouldn’t be able to solve by himself.”

“Then how do we solve it?” You leaned back in your seat, your brain working over the possibilities.

“I don’t know.” You responded, before closing your eyes. You then tacked on one last word. “Yet.”

Several hours later you were flying low over Munich, and by low, you meant like two hundred feet from the ground, the belly of the plane just hovering over the treetops.

“Are you two just going to stare at each other?” you asked, your arms crossed over your chest. Bucky and Sam didn’t move a muscle from their staring contest. Sam finally got up and went to grab his goggles.

“So what was our plan?” Bucky asked as he followed Sam. Sam continued to ignore Bucky.

“Of all the juvenile things…” you muttered underneath your breath.

“Great. So no plan,”

“Thirty seconds!” Joaquin called from where he was standing at the jump door.

“Enjoy your ride, Buck,”

“Nah, you can’t call me that,”

“Steve called you Buck,”

“Steve knew me longer, and Steve had a plan.” Huffing at how petty the two alphas were being in the moment, you stood up from your seat and made sure that your jetpack was secured around your body. Then you pulled out your navigation glasses and slipped them on your face.

Even at that point, the two were still arguing, so you walked over to Joaquin, who was looking at you with wide eyes.

“Leave a job to an alpha and nothing will get done,” you told him before glancing back at the arguing men. “Are you two eggheads coming?”

At your words, and that the sound had come from the back end of the plane, Sam and Bucky glanced at you. They did double takes.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Sam erupted. “Di what are you doing!?”

“Getting shit done while you two are arguing!” you snapped before stepping out of the plane and dropping through the air. The jetpack picked up your fast rate of descent and fired up, slowing your fall down until you were hovering in the air.

“Friday, set coordinates and pull up on view screen.” A blinking line appeared on the screen of your glasses.

“Done. Is there anything else I can do for you, Miss Phillips?”

“I’m set, thanks Friday.”

“Of course, have a good day.” From there, you twisted and angled your body, shooting in the direction of the line. There was a building in the distance. That had to be where you were going. You started slowing down and descended to the forest floor.

Your boots hit the forest floor and while you turned off the jetpack with your watch, Red Wing floated down to where you stood and let out a trill.

“I’m fine, Little Red,” you told the small machine before turning in the direction of the warehouse and following the blinking line on your glasses.

“You were supposed to stay on the plane, Diana,” Sam’s voice chirped from Red Wing.

“And we were supposed to be covert,” you sass back, stepping over a rotted log. Red Wing flew up close to you and let out a beep. Then a small compartment opened to reveal an earpiece. You took it and slipped it into your ear. “Finally coming around?”

“Don’t have much of a choice at this point,” Sam growled in your ear. “You jumped out of the freaking plane! If you weren’t a beta, I’d spank your ass for putting yourself in danger like that!”

“And if I was an alpha?”

“I’d still spank your ass!” So spanking either way, you could take that, since he had no discrimination over your designation.

“Face it Sam, if this is what we think it is, you need me… unless you or Bucky went back to college and got an advance degree in Chemistry.” You shot back.

“I get it, stop sounding so damn smug,” Sam answered. “I don’t want you in the crossfire, Di.”

“I’m not here to be turned into Swiss cheese, Sam. I’m here to do what I’m good at, nothing more.” You explained to him as you picked your way across the forest. “Super soldiers—they shouldn’t exist. They can’t exist.”

“… Meet me at the back of the warehouse,” Sam muttered.

“Copy,” you answered, your eyes settling on the building. “Is Barnes here or did he not jump?”

“You jumped out of the plane, you think he was going to stay on the damn plane knowing what you had just launched yourself into?”

“May I remind you that while I am not as well trained as you two are, I am far from defenseless?” You retorted while continuing your hike. Red Wing seemed to be content to keep watch.

Stealthily making your way to the back of the warehouse, you climbed through a broken window and dropped to the concrete floor. Your glasses automatically did a scan of the surroundings and you could see several people walking around at the opposite side of the warehouse. They were carrying big boxes that no human was strong enough to lift like they weighed a feather.

While you were further scoping out the activity, Bucky and Sam started bickering to themselves. Rolling your eyes at the two men who, might you add, were grown adults and alphas, continued their quips, you slinked your way over.

“Are you two princesses done flashing tiaras or should I come back another time?” you questioned them, giving them both looks. “There’s multiple people, and they’re jacked on something. I’m going to head in for a better look.”

“What? Di— get back here!” Ignoring the hissed calls from the two men, you took a side route and peeked around a metal wall to get a look at the truck. They were loading something onto it, but the question was what.

You got a chance to get closer when you heard metal clatter across concrete. What were those boys doing!? No time to contemplate why they had their heads up their asses. Darting forwards, you slipped underneath the carriage of the semi and got a hold of the pipes and chains. Feet ran past where you were hidden and the truck started up.

“Di, there’s an eighth person, hostage, we’re in pursuit. What’s your status?” Sam questioned.

“Hanging around,” you spoke as the trunk started trundling along. You glanced down at the ground as gravel and dirt passed. “What makes you think it’s a hostage?”

“They’re hidden in the back, hunkered down.” Sam answered. You could hear the wind flying by him as he flew. “Buck’s in pursuit.”

“You know he hates it when you call him that.”

“He has a general hate for everything.” Well, that was mostly true. Adjusting your grip on the truck, you heard Bucky let out a swear and then crunch of metal.

“Bucky?” you called, hearing the sounds of fighting and grunting.

“I’m a little busy right now!” He yelled back. Leaning your head back, you could see several shapes standing on the roof of the truck, holding what had to be Bucky.

“Clearly,” you muttered before carefully moving yourself further down the underside of the carriage. “Need some bac—“

“No!” Both Sam and Bucky yelled. You huffed and then saw Red Wing zip in and fire several rounds at one of the people. The little flying robot didn’t get very many rounds in before being snatched out of the air and broken in half.

You watched pieces get thrown and reacted. Your jetpack flared to life and, twisting out from under the truck, you snatched the pieces of Red Wing out of the air before they hit the road. Shooting back into the air, Sam passed you and dove straight for the person who snapped Red Wing in half.

“Good of you to join the fight, Sam!”

Holding the pieces of metal and machinery to your chest, you kept an even pace as you flew along the two trucks barreling down the road. Bucky and Sam were getting their asses handed to them, since every single person they were fighting had extra strength.

“Bucky, single out!” You called before angling your shoulders and shooting down towards the truck. Bucky, who managed to get free, kicked one of the people away from the fighting. You shot downwards and with a hearty kick, nailed the guy in the chest, sending him flying off the side of the truck and onto the road to be left behind.

Spiraling upwards, you circled back to fly with the trucks once more, and noticed that a helicopter had arrived, and John Walker of all people, was hanging off of it.

“Who invited egghead and baby duck!?” You shouted over the chaos as the two men joined the fight. Bucky was knocked off, but managed to catch the side of the truck, his vibranium fingers digging into the metal.

“Hell should I know!” Bucky snarled back as the second truck went to smash him against the one he was clinging to. Sam dived and swiped him out of the way, but the two hit the ground and started rolling.

“Alphas,” you snorted, turning your head back to the two men that joined the fight. You were losing this one, and fast. One of the two men got kicked off the truck, so diving, you grabbed the back of his tact shirt and stopped him from hitting the ground.

Since you had Red Wing tucked underneath your other arm, it was hard to stay stable, and you dropped. Managing to hold the weight distribution, your feet hit the ground, and you both stumbled at a run. You let him go and continued to run before jumping back in the air, hearing a ‘thank you’ from behind.

Backtracking to where Bucky and Sam had fallen, you found the two walking along the road, bickering once more.

“Is it even possible for you two to spend five minutes together without bickering?” you questioned them as you let your feet hit the road and turned your jetpack off.

“No,” they both replied. Sam glanced at you, then at the wrecked pieces of Red Wing you still held, but said nothing. The three of you fell in line and continued walking.

“How did they do it, Di?” You glanced at Sam.

“Someone had to have cracked the code, it was bound to happen. People want to be strong, they want to have security, and in this world, with that serum, they can,” you answered as a car carrying Walker and Lemar pulled up beside you.

“So that didn’t go as planned, huh?” Walker stated. The three of you ignored him and kept walking. “Okay. Let’s keep going. Look, at least we know what we’re up against now, huh? And we’re pretty sure it’s one of the Big Three, so…”

“Aliens, androids, or wizards?”

“That’s a universal thing now?” you questioned with your nose scrunched. Bucky grunted at you.

“Pretty sure.”

“There’s no such thing as wizards.” Bucky spoke up.

“Then it’s aliens, or androids…”

“Or Super Soldiers.” Sam interjected.

“Shit. Super Soldiers, for real?” Lemar questioned as Walker took a moment to think about what that meant.

“Yeah, why do you think Rocket is with us. For shits and giggles?” you snorted and rolled your eyes.

“Wow. All right, well, then we gotta work together.” Walker finally chipped in.

“That’s not happening.”

“I think we stand a much better chance if we all just…”

“Just ’cause you carry that shield, it doesn’t mean you’re Captain America.” Now they were getting into it with Walker and Lemar? Was picking fights with other alphas all they were good for?

“Look, I’ve done the work, okay?”

“You ever jump on top of a grenade?”

“We really gonna go there?” You asked Bucky, giving him a look.

“Yeah. Actually, I have. Four times. It’s a thing I do with my helmet. It’s a reinforced helmet. It’s a long story, but, any… Look, it’s 20 miles to the airport. You guys need a ride. Guys. Gary, stop. Get in. I don’t think you need to be dragging a beta all over the back country of Germany.”

Your eye twitched at the mention of your designation and insinuation of being a female beta who, in theory, was weaker. Sam and Bucky looked at you and you shrugged at them. They relented to the offer of a ride and you ended up sandwiched between Bucky and Sam.

“Okay, so we’ve got eight Super Soldiers on a bulk supply run. Why?” Walker mused out loud.

“They say their mission is to get things back to the way it was during The Blip.”

“And how was that exactly?” You questioned, leaning back and crossing your arms.

“Maybe they’re just trying to help.” Sam added.

“They had a funny way of showing it.”

“Don’t start,” you huffed, raising a finger at each of them.

“That serum doesn’t exactly have a great track record.” Walker said before inching his head at Bucky. “No offense.”

“We need to figure out where they’re going. How’d you track ’em here? The Flag Smashers?” Sam broached.

“Uh, no, we didn’t track them, we tracked you, uh, through Redwing.” Lemar spoke up from where he had been sitting quietly.

“You hacked my tech?” Sam said, obviously hurt that they would do such a thing.

“Sorry. It’s not exactly hacking. It’s government property. Kind of the government.” You stared at Walker, your gaze matching Bucky’s. “Do they always just stare like that?”

“You get used to it.”

“Are we making you uncomfortable?” You queried, keeping your face devoid of emotion. Walker’s blue eyes met yours.

“Actually, you kind of are.”

“Get over it.”

Date Published: No idea.

Last Edit: 4/29/24

Masterlist | Next

[materialsscienceandengineering]

New technique in tiny tool tuning: Making microscopic measurements more accurate

Fluidic force microscopy (FluidFM) combines the sensitivity of atomic force microscopy with microfluidics' capabilities, necessitating precise calibration of its cantilevers for reliable data. Traditional methods, however, struggle with the unique internal structure of FluidFM cantilevers, leading to inaccuracies. A recent study published on February 18, 2024, in the journal Microsystems & Nanoengineering reports an innovative calibration technique for FluidFM micropipette cantilevers, pivotal for exact force measurements in microfluidic environments. The FluidFM is a tiny tool used in microscopic environments to measure forces with high precision. Unlike traditional methods that often fall short due to the complex inner structure of FluidFM cantilevers, this new approach leverages the cantilever's resonance frequencies in both air and liquid environments.

Read more.

[theresa-of-liechtenstein]

also being trained to take over this project is so interesting to me in so many ways. bc

i am quickly learning that i have to unlearn a lot of questionable habits from being accustomed to my last lab. apparently ‘pick up the micropipette tip from the recycled box of nitrile gloves and manually attach it to your pipette’ is not. how it’s supposed to be done

my supervisor and labmate are both so incredibly nice and helpful. i said ‘oh im sorry’ when i took an embarrassingly long time to open a microcentrifuge tube with my thumb (i’ve only used large centrifuges) and my supervisor said ‘no worries! you’re doing it for the first time!’

however sometimes when they start discussing their differences in certain lab processes i am literally just standing there like 💁🏼‍♀️🧍🏻‍♀️💁🏻‍♀️

it’s a damn good thing i don’t have to worry about learning all of this in my first quarter of residency. if i had to learn all this And take my fundamentals course And have new repertoire in orchestra And potentially have to TA an upper division course. i would not have survived.

[lunar-goodness]

We’re taking blood samples from some rats and since it’s such a small amount, when we spin it to collect the plasma we have to use a micropipetter to draw it up and I feel so sciency up in this bitch!

This is me right now!!

[dspdick]

hello everyone. i hope you have some snacks on you because i have yet another thing to rant about. fortunately it isn’t about the bunch of idiots i have the misfortune of calling classmates, instead it’s the cursed place where i chose to continue my education. let’s yell about university.

for starters, i would like to point out that this is an expensive university. like. 900€/month expensive. i get to pay almost half of it because i have a discount due to my high school grades, but you have to keep it up during your stay in college and once it’s taken away you can’t ask for it again.

given the exorbitant price every single of its students is paying, you would think that my class would be in a decent building. wrong. we’re in a prefabricated shitty three-story building in the other side of campus from our labs. because medicine students have their own simulation clinics and the business students get a bajillion brick buildings but fuck the genetics kids amiright?

speaking of labs. the installations are cool and all but the materials need a serious upgrade. I CANT DO A PROPER GEL ELECTROPHORESIS IF THE MICROPIPETTE DOES THE EQUIVALENT OF A DRIVING NEWBIE WITH A MANUAL CAR. also the ph-meters are the bane of my existence and me the bane of theirs.

also. the lab practices are four hours long. which wouldn’t be too bad if they didn’t make us start them at three or four pm when we’ve been in classes from eight or ten am. yes i spend close to twelve hours on campus on lab weeks yes they also pretend that we have time to study.

BY THE WAY. OH MY GOD. studying. i know it’s necessary. but i have EIGHT SUBJECTS THIS SEMESTER. EIGHT. students in other universities have less subjects per year. one of them is a lab subject and we have a fuckin. oral and practical exam. ITS A LAB SUBJECT?? WHY DO I HAVE TO LEARN THE PROCEDURES AND WHY EVERYTHING IS DONE PLUS DO A NiCE LaB nOTeBoOk. SUCK MY DICK.

that and the fact that i not only have science subjects but also philosophy, communication and fucking BUSINESS. yes they’re useful but i frankly haven’t seen a subject with a worse organization than my philosophy class. and on top of that my business teacher just keeps sending projects and questions. maam your class is worth three credits. be grateful i do an effort to get out of bed and spend two and a half bitchass hours to listen to you yap about ip and business life cycles at eight thirty in the morning on a friday.

and now that i mention this, i still can’t believe we’ll have to do 50 mandatory hours of volunteer work next year. yay for volunteer work, i’ve done before and it’s amazing. but you can’t expect someone who spends 10+ hours in college regularly to do the same amount of time as people who only have 3 to 4 hours of class per day.

the worst part of all is the fact that our degree supervisor just expects us to act like phd students or some shit. she literally told to the class presidents that “we can’t expect to have compromises and extracurriculars outside of university. we have to focus on our college life”. this is our first year. i don’t even want to think about how we’ll be treated from now on.

and i guess this is why im so scared. i like genetics. love it, even, when applied to things i enjoy and not a clinical environment. but i want to live my life and be able to truly rest and enjoy and not want to kill myself constantly over the amount of workload that we have to deal with.

i don’t know if i’m going to drop out or keep going but all my options are bleak. either i continue and somehow survive college enough time to get my degree without having killed myself, or i drop out. and from there i have more options. a) immediately switching to a different college and/or undergrad, b) taking an off year and changing my undergrad.

i don’t even know what i’m going to do. i’m exhausted on all the levels a human can be tired and i have no idea if i have it in me to keep going or just take the easy out.

[jianghuchild]

WIP Wednesday

I don't think I've ever done one of these. Leaning into my teenage cringe with a Maze Runner self-insert. Warnings for a bit of not-too-graphic violence at the end.

(When I say self-insert I mean Skinner is symbolically me when I was watching tdc and screaming "THAT'S NOT HOW YOU USE A MICROPIPETTE" and "THAT'S NOT HOW UTILITARIANISM WORKS" at the screen)

Skinner nearly doesn’t notice the figure, slipping into the maze from another opening at her periphery. She squints, trying to make him out in her blurry vision. No one should be going into the maze this early in the morning, and certainly not alone. She makes it to the opening just in time to see the figure disappear around a bend. Skinner glances over her shoulder, mouth pressed thin, then back at the maze. “No one ever accused me of thinking things through,” she murmurs, then plunges into the maze. Almost immediately she begins to regret it. The walls are tall and claustrophobically close. They seem to breathe down her neck, choking out the sliver of sky like a valley of shadows. Skinner rubs the ache out of her knuckles as she rounds the bend. The corridor is empty. Three more paths fork out of it—three invitations to a silent death. Skinner glances back the way she came. Maybe she should go back and get one of the Runners, Minho or Newt. Whoever came in here, will they be able to find him again? She’s just about to go back when a shift in the air tickles her ear. Skinner turns, just as Newt’s body drops out of the air and shatters at her feet. Skinner screams.

[meteortrails]

strangles my biochem lab partner with my bare hands. I left him alone for truly 5 minutes and he BROKE the ONE micropipette that we needed to use to finish our last task and get the fuck out of lab. he could’ve done the task himself!!! he didn’t have to wait for me!!!! and instead he breaks our pipette. it’s fine our angel of a TA fixed it for us and I borrowed our neighboring lab group’s pipette and finished up while he was dealing with that but goddamn. 4 hour long lab and this is how you wanna finish it out.

[abhishektorgalblogs]

July 5th, 1996 was the day when Dolly was born. Dolly was not the name of a little girl, but rather a name given to a sheep. This day is considered an iconic event in medical science. However, there is a catch. While thousands of sheep are born every day, this sheep was not born through sexual reproduction. Rather, she was created through the process of cloning, which means making an identical copy of an individual by using a tiny cell.

After this event, it was discovered that cloning was possible, and that mammals could be cloned.

According to some conspiracy theories, scientists have already developed the method for human cloning, but only a few people who are in power know about it, and they are using this method for their own benefits. There are many conspiracy theories related to human cloning available on the internet.

but in this post you will get only facts

There are three types of cloning: gene cloning, reproductive cloning, and therapeutic cloning. Dolly, the sheep, was created through reproductive cloning. The process used to create Dolly was quite complicated, but it is important to pay attention to it.

First, a nucleus was taken from a somatic cell of a donor and transplanted into a host egg cell, which already had its genetic material removed, making it an enucleated egg. When the genetic material from the somatic cell was transferred into the host oocyte using a micropipette, an electric current was used to fuse the genetic material from the somatic cell with the egg. When the two cells fused, a new cell was created, which was then grown in a surrogate body, resulting in the creation of Dolly the sheep.

This method, known as reproductive cloning can theoretically be used for human cloning, but not practically. For example, it took scientists 277 attempts to create the first mammal clone. This means that a surrogate body had to carry the embryo 277 times. Currently, the success rate of mammal cloning is between 10% to 20%, which is better than the 0.4% success rate in 1996. However, this process is still inefficient.

Technically, it is not difficult to create a clone embryo, but when it comes to human cloning, there are many challenges that need to be considered. Even if scientists can overcome these challenges, there is still a bigger issue that is waiting for them.

The success rate for mammal cloning is between 10% to 20%, which means that there is an 80% to 90% chance that the experiment will fail. The experiment can hurt the baby, and the surrogates who carries the embryo can also be hurt. Additionally, sometimes cloned mammals expire before being implanted, there are miscarriages, and some cloned animals develop serious abnormalities.

While these risks and experiments can be carried out on animals, it becomes difficult when it comes to humans. The biggest reason why human cloning has not been attempted is that there is no need for it.

Human cloning can create a person who looks like another, similar to twins who look alike, but they may not necessarily have the same qualities. However, human organs can be cloned through the process of therapeutic cloning, which is the type of cloning that creates embryonic stem cells. This process is similar to reproductive cloning, but embryos are stored rather than implanted in a surrogate body.

In summary, while theoretically human cloning is possible, practically there are many challenges that need to be overcome. Furthermore, human cloning is not necessary as organs can be cloned through therapeutic cloning.

[geneticcatalyst]

I would like you to know that I adore your top 5 lab equipment post. I first read it and my immediate reaction was “this motherfucker gets me (affectionately).” I was thinking about the post again last night during my shift (I work in veterinary medicine but I was a biology major for school) and I literally started ranting about how fucking awesome micropipettes are. I think my coworkers think I’m a little insane, but what is new.

Personally, the only thing I would change on the top 5 lab equipment would be the spectrophotometer bc I have not used that much at all. My replacement for that one for top 5 would be electrophoresis gel, but that’s just from my experience.

Sorry for the random message, but I want you to know how much that post delights me

- With love, a fellow scientist

oh!! we are siblings in arms!! yes yes yes big pipette feelings here. like I said my background was in a research lab where I did a lot of gel electrophoresis and I still love and miss it, I'm actually jealous you get to do it on the regular! Ive since gone corporate and work in a very high throughput production genotyping lab where we rely mostly on digital PCR so the spectro/fluorometry was a nod to both PCR readers and the good old fashioned Nanodrop (my beloved). so yes You Get Me and you're so valid for liking gels and also its awesome that you work in vet med! I'm in ag but I've always vibed with veterinary people y'all are cool.

[hylianengineer]

I went looking for lab tech stock photos because I thought they'd be hilariously bad. And, okay, some of them are, mostly in the form of over- or under-doing the PPE and also TERRIBLE micropipetting technique, but also? This thing where people stand around staring at their coworkers measuring liquid?

Yeah I've done that. I did that last week. We do in fact stand around to give each other second opinions on whether the volumetric flask is perfectly filled yet. I mean, his angle's all wrong, you have to get on eye-level with it, and I can't imagine why you'd use a micropipette to fill a volumetric flask in the first place, but still.

[witchmd13]

Heyyy would you have any tips for undergrads in labs to be *less* frustrating? I never know whether to bother a grad student with an equipment related question, or try to figure it out myself and end up making a mess. I’m sure it’s very group-specific but I don’t know what I’m doing and would appreciate any advice! Ty in advance.

hi! I would love to give you tips. it is group specific, but I'm happy to give general tips!

First of all, I need you to know that there are not so kind grad students out there, just like there are not so kind professors out there. it's not your fault and there's probably nothing you can do about it. however, sometimes we are too stressed. it's still not your fault, but that's just the reality. grad school (in general because i know it's different for each country and university) can make the kindest person snap sometimes. I've seen it.

also it's totally okay to feel like you don't know what you're doing. I spent the first couple of months shadowing my thesis supervisor's research assistant and I felt like I was back to being a first year student. she was so kind and answered all my questions. she never made me feel stupid. I still call her sometimes when I need help. so it's totally fine to be lost, it's all about asking the right person, which brings me:

FIND A KIND PERSON AND STICK TO THEM LIKE GLUE. just find anyone in the lab who's willing to teach you and answer your questions or even let you follow them around as they work. I know it's hard to find them sometimes and they're often busy, but there's always at least one. for me it was the RA I mentioned. saved my life. even if it was another undergrad who's been there a little longer than you have, they can be a great help. and if that someone is always busy, ask them if they have free time to answer your questions later. often they will be happy to help.

always, ALWAYS, try to be on time. especially if there's an experiment you're invited to see or help in. chances are the people working on the experiment have been preparing for it for at least an entire day before and sometimes weeks or even months before. it's not about you. they need to start on time and they can't wait for you.

ASK BEFORE YOU USE A DEVICE. a lot of the devices in the lab are calibrated to certain parameters. for example cell incubators, centrifuge machines in our lab, whatever it is. just ask. sometimes even a micropipette is put on a certain measurement the person using it is used to leave it at.

DONT OPEN CETRIFUGE TUBES/PETRI DISHES/COVER SLIPS/EPPENDORF TUBES… ETC THAT ARE STILL IN THE PLASTIC PACKAGE WITHOUT ASKING. chances are this stuff is sterile. you risk contaminating it if you open it outside a specialized hood and it becomes unusable, so just ask.

ALWAYS PUT YOUR SAFTY FIRST. I learned this from my thesis supervisor. this is not about the usual stuff like your lab coat and gloves. I mean if you break a container and the substance in it touches your skin YOU TELL SOMEONE even if it's the most expensive stuff in the lab. once we were working with liquid nitrogen and the container tipped over and almost crashed. my supervisor immediatly pulled me out of the way and let the samples all fall to the floor. we had spent months experimenting on animals for these, but it wasn't worth losing my hand or foot trying to save them.

lastly, DONT BE TOO STRESSED TO HAVE FUN. working in a lab can be so cool and fun. scientists are the most excited dorks on the planet. they can be very grumpy (bureaucracy will kill us all one day), but wait until you're standing in a room with a group of scientists who just had an experiment they've been working on for months work. IT'S THE MOST MAGICAL THING.

I hope these help. I couldn't think of more and I tried to make them as general as possible but I work in a bio lab. my field is neuroscience/neuroanatomy and i work on animals and cell cultures mostly so I don't know how it works in other labs, but the general sentiment stands. I wish you all the luck! 💛💛

[mayuris-posts]

Among the many discoveries that changed The course of our lives is test-tube baby treatment. The first baby born through a test tube was Louis Brown on July 25th, 1978. Her birth marked the arrival of an era which promised parenthood for many who could not conceive naturally.

What is so special about the Test-Tube process?

This is a procedure wherein human embryos were cultivated outside the human body (in-vitro) and then transplanted into the womb of a mother or carrier. That’s how the term “in-vitro fertilization” comes into IVF was popularized. The test-tube baby treatment and IVF procedures (In-vitro fertilization) are one and the same.

In vitro simply means in glass or in fertilization is the process of fusion of eggs from females & sperm from males. This fusion is made in petri dishes by embryologists. The embryo formed is then transferred to the womb of the intending mother. It follows the same process of growth for 9 months as normal conception.

The production of eggs requires hormonal injections to stimulate the ovaries to produce multiple mature eggs.  On the day of harvest, which is about 1- to 14 days from the commencement of stimulation injections, the eggs are taken out of the ovaries using a very thin and long needle called a micropipette. This procedure is performed under general anaesthesia and in an OT. The extraction of eggs is the job of experts.

The process of handling eggs and achieving fertilization is done in the embryo lab. Special techniques avoid ice formation within eggs & sperms. These techniques require expertise with the utmost accuracy.

We at Yash IVF follow the Day 5 transfer of the embryo, which means, after the fusion of an egg with sperm, embryos are formed. We wait till day 5 of embryo transfer (Blastocyst stage), as Blastocyst stage transfers are considered the most successful and likely to result in a conception and live birth.

Any woman under 35, who is unable to conceive after a year of active sex life, should consult a fertility expert. There are a few medical conditions which delay conception.

Unexplained infertility, Blocked fallopian tubes, Male factor infertility, older patients who desire to have a child, Low ovarian reserve, Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS), Endometriosis, and Premature Ovarian Failure. These conditions can be controlled to achieve pregnancy through various assisted reproduction procedures.

An IVF procedure is multidisciplinary and requires teamwork, technology, and dedication to culminate in success. IVF is emotionally and financially taxing. Choosing the right fertility clinic is an important decision that will affect your future positively or negatively.

Let’s clear a few doubts about Test-tube baby.

Can test-tube babies have babies too?

Yes, that is what IVF stands for. Parenthood for all. The first IVF birth occurred in the late 1970s. To date, more than 5 million children have been born through IVF, as it is developing for betterment. There are many cases where test-tube babies have given birth to babies and all are healthy.

Are test-tube babies designed or artificial?

Through IVF, one cannot choose specific baby traits and have a customized baby. Doctors select the best quality embryos and not the genes. Test-tube babies are not artificial or designer babies, as one cannot select specific characteristics. The correct terminology is Assisted Reproduction Technology. So it is assisted and not Artificial.

Can the Sex of the baby be Chosen through IVF in India?

Absolutely not. Gender selection & discrimination is strictly prohibited at Yash IVF. Through IVF, the babies are born and not the gender created.

Are test-tube babies designer or artificial?

Through IVF, one cannot choose specific baby traits and have a customized baby. Doctors select the best quality embryos and not the genes. In the natural process, the body selects the best sperm & egg by various mechanisms, and the same processes are developed under laboratory conditions. Test-tube babies are not artificial or designer babies, as one cannot select specific characteristics.

Are Test-Tube Babies the only legacy for the Rich and Famous?

IVF is an expensive process because of the controlled environmental & procedural conditions. However, the costs of IVF are within the reach, making it affordable for many couples. Financial assistance through EMIs is available at Yash IVF, Pune, Deccan.

To conclude, test-tube babies or IVF babies are the same terminologies. IVF is a modern term which replaced test-tube babies. IVF is a boon and changed the way babies are born. Having a healthy baby is more important than the gender of the baby. IVF has given hope to many childless couples. There are many IVF or test-tube baby centres available at the nook and corner of the city. Choosing the right fertility clinic is the most challenging task.

We at Yash IVF have a transparent policy in place regarding the finance and treatment protocols, which are tailor-made, as the journey of every IVF is different. Cost to pregnancy is the real investment and the success rate of Yash IVF is around 70%. Do visit us to know more.