rebeccmeister | Reigning things in

This week, I have managed to get the chemistry lab mostly reigned in. It's a relief to have that done. The reusable test tubes, culture tubes, and screw-cap tubes are all sorted and labeled according to size, and put away in appropriate places, aside from two boxes of questionable cleanliness that have been labeled accordingly. If it turns out that I need those additional screw-cap tubes, I'll clean them at that point. Otherwise, someone else can inherit the project. A whole bunch of old samples in scintillation tubes have been bagged and tagged for disposal. Lots of broken glassware has been discarded. I think it's bad practice to hang onto stock bottles that have chipped rims, or other such broken items. For all of the cases where a little dribble down the side is no big deal, there are other cases where it adds up to a bad problem. *sound of whip cracking can be heard in the distance*

I haven't gone through to test the various Hamilton syringes lying around the lab, or the micropipettes. Hamilton syringes are new to me, but I appreciate them for what they can do. There's still a fair amount of glassware that needs cleaning, including a whole bunch of 15 mL conical glass tubes with lipid residues in the bottom. A friend suggested using acetone as a solvent to clean them, but I don't know if we have acetone, and the flammables and corrosives cabinets kind of terrify me, so I haven't looked too closely.

Tomorrow I'll start practicing lipid extractions. Perhaps I'll get back to writing, too.