Category Archives: KochLab Stuff

KochLab Stuff

Fixing the incubator

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Warning: My phone takes some bewilderingly bad pictures, and unfortunately all images in this post were taken with said phone. I have a Droid Bionic, so if you are on the fence about phones and want a good camera, this is not the phone for you.

Onto the protocol…

So I noticed that our incubator/shaker (Innova 4300) wouldn’t shake. The display would read “LID” indicating that the lid was open even though it was closed. Usually I just lean on the top and presto! But this time no amount of force would register as closed. So I had to figure out what part of the shaker registers the lid as closed. Here is what I noticed:

It seems there are two sensors that must make contact between the base of the machine and the lid. Here are pictures of the pieces and their contact points:

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sensor on lid on right side.
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sensor contact on base on right side
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sensor on base on left side
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sensor contact on lid on left side

So no matter how much pressure I put on the lid, one of these contacts was not making contact. I checked and it was the one on the right side:

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see the space?

And if you see in that picture, there are screws on each side of that cylinder. So I unscrewed each one and was able to pull the plate off and push the sensor down some. I put the plate and the screws back on and put the lid down. Then the machine seemed to work.

The caveat is that the sensor thing right now isn’t making contact between the lid and the base, and the machine still works, so I’m thinking that even though what I did was mighty, it really had no effect. But my question is, if that thing is not a sensor, then why are there wires that attach to it? (I didn’t mention that before, but that is why I assumed this thing was a sensor.)

Anyways, the shaker gives me no issues now. So for your viewing pleasure here are some other pictures I took to that I sent from my phone in case I needed them, don’t really, but want to show you anyway:

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the inside of our shaker
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blurry and dark image of the left sensor making contact with the lid
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another blurry image of the same sensor.

Hopefully this post is useful to someone, or someone can see that I clearly have no idea what I’m doing and can explain to me why the lid would fail to register as closed and then I adjust a seemingly meaningless piece and now it registers as closed, even though it isn’t touching anything.

KochLab Stuff

Stuff for Alex to do this week

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Monday:

  • meet with me to talk about the plan for the week

Tuesday

  • create starter culture of e. coli
  • come to my talk at 1:15pm in the SUB (Santa Ana B, I believe)

Wednesday

  • do 1:10 dilution of starter culture in DI water, DDW, and 33% D2O)
  • take hourly time points of growth
  • help me work on #Scifund video (I’ll story board it on Tuesday after my talk)

I feel like I had more to say, but I can’t remember. Regardless if I can think of anything else, I’ll add it in the comments. Otherwise, let’s get excited, this is the beginning of a kickass summer of research!

DDW Effects On Life, KochLab Stuff, Water Type Effects on Organism Growth, Yeast1

New Yeast

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I have no idea when this will get here, but I put in an order for some new S. cerevisiae. I think on Monday I’ll have Alex grow another starter culture and then on Tuesday, we’ll try and get better resolution under the microscope than we got last time.

Anyways, here is what I’ve ordered (from ATCC.org).

Genomic Data, KochLab Stuff, Shotgun DNA Mapping

DNA sequences for Shotgun DNA Mapping Algorithms

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Via Dropbox:

If I can think of other cool things to download and upload to dropbox I’ll add them here.

KochLab Stuff

-80 Freezer Down

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I can’t remember if I posted this yesterday or not (and I’m too lazy to look it up myself) but yesterday when I got into lab, the -80C freezer malfunctioned and there was an alarm alerting me to a “high system failure.” After calling VWR and receiving next to no help, I unplugged the machine and plugged it back it after waiting a few minutes. Problem solved. The freezer is working like normal again.
I have no idea what caused the malfunction, but everything in the freezer was thawed. Koch and I filled some styrofoam containers with LN2 (liquid nitrogen) and put everything in the freezer into the LN2. We then stuck the containers in the freezer to add an extra layer of insulation. I’ll remove the samples tomorrow and place them back in their respective boxes and back in the freezer like normal.

KochLab Stuff

Reusing Drierite

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We were running low on Drierite (we use the indicating variety) in the lab, which is a desiccant, and so I ordered some more. Fairly straight forward.

In my search for the stuff we currently use I came across this page talking about regenerating the dessicant. This would have been awesome to know a few years ago, as someone has been throwing out old dessicant. In the case of our indicating drierite, the chips turn from blue to pink, so the pink chips end up discarded.

I decided to order more because I didn’t want to deal with leaving chemicals that are in the desiccator in there for an extended period of time without desiccating material.

Anyways if you (like me) are too lazy to click the link that talks about desiccant regeneration then read below for the drierite protocol:

For the regeneration of Indicating DRIERITE and small lots of Regular DRIERITE , the granules may be spread in layers one granule deep and heated for 1 hour at 210° C or 425° F. The regenerated material should be placed in the the original glass or metal container and sealed while hot. The color of the Indicating DRIERITE may become less distinct on successive regenerations due to the migration of the indicator into the interior of the granule and sublimation of the indicator.

Note: I’m creating a new notebook category for stuff like this, that has little to do with my research but could be vital one day for future students in the KochLab. I am cleverly calling it “KochLab Stuff.”