Biomedical research is a costly business. You don’t really get a visceral understanding of just how costly until you become the principal investigator on a hefty source of funding and start monitoring your own balance sheet. You can easily drop £300 on a dollop of antibody or £7,000 on a custom siRNA library, but even the day-to-day plastic consumables quickly add up.
Makeshift kit MacGyver would be proud
Perhaps because of my frugal upbringing, I have a thrifty streak in me. I despair, for example, that some of my lab mates like to purchase ready-made bovine serum albumin solution instead of making it themselves. For those of you who aren’t biologists, you essentially weigh out some fluffy powder into a beaker, add water, put a small magnetic bar into the beaker and set it tinkling on a stir-plate for five minutes or so until it dissolves: all very therapeutic. As a reference, it would actually take more time and effort to put through a purchase order request for the ready-made stuff.
In this spirit – with just a few special exceptions – I am always keen to encounter low-cost alternatives. I suspect I am not alone in this. When physicist Rolf Landua was showing me around the antimatter generator at CERN for a piece I was writing for LabLit, I was almost more amazed by the sheer amount of aluminum foil and gaffer tape in evidence than by the idea of those elusive subatomic particles being created and annihilated not two feet away from me. I love the ingenuity of scientists across the full spectrum, but somehow a solution cobbled together with everyday objects is more wholesome and genuine than the shiniest piece of technical wizardry.
So I took immediate interest the other day when I noticed something very unusual lying next to the microscope in the cell-culture room. If you look at the image above, you can see that the object in question used to be a 384-well screening plate. In its undisturbed configuration, each square plastic well can comfortably grow several thousand living cells, and the plate has a glass bottom suitable for subsequent immunofluorescence microscopy (as in the picture here). This pimped-up version, however, as crudely fashioned as a knapped flint, seemed designed to hold a 3-cm tissue culture dish. But who, how and why?
The ‘who’ was easy enough; the initials belonged to our French post-doc, a wily biophysicist who is very clever with his hands. The ‘why’ was clear from what was scrawled on the autoclave tape: it transpires that our big centrifuge has adapters for the screen plates but not for round dishes, and this baby was designed to help spin down cells for quick attachment to the substratum.
But what about the ‘how’? To discover the modus operandi, I had to ask the Frenchman himself. With his trademark cheeky grin, he explained that he had used a hot hammer – or, as he put it, a ‘ot ‘ammer. After dissecting out an 8×8 area of the well matrix, he had superheated the blunt end of the humble DIY tool with the gas burner until it glowed orange, then pressed it into the plate.
Et voilà: the lab is saved another few hundred quid.
a ‘ot ‘ammmmere? Oh grief. Shades of ‘Allo ‘Allo
He’s taking H lessons from me but still has a lot to learn.
As long as he doesn’t start
pissingpassing in the street.Better watch out, Richard: the man has a hot hammer.
As long as he doesn’t have a handle in his candle, I’m not worried.
I hadmire this man’s hingenuity. Looking back at a youth and, hincreasingly, middle hage mis-spent in rock bands, it seems that much of my life ‘as been ‘eld together with gaffer tape.
Today, without this wonderful hinvention, a ‘amster at the Maison Des Girrafes would be without a water bottle, and our gas meter would be hexposed to the helements.
‘Owever, I ‘ve recently discovered the manifest hutility hof these
which can be hused to fix wire netting to fence posts without hall that tedious nailing staples hinto posts which fall over, while trying not to bash your fingers.
Ah, those are indeed glorious, Henry. I once managed to fix a dodgy gel apparatus with one of those.
a ‘ot ‘ammer 🙂
Excellent story!
Thanks Raf. I’m afraid to show it to postdoc – he might spike my tubes with something in revenge.
Henry – I use those “things” a lot too, but can’t find ones that are big enough for “bushes that are turning into trees” size (eg a mallow I am trying to get to be a tree (tall) and not a bush (too bushy too low down) — I know it is possible as I have seen them about. Any suggestions (natch, I have tried John Lewis and even Homebase)?
An even greater scale-up of the circular plate-holder is required in the case of some of these plants in my garden.
Maxine: bungee cords?
Maxine
You clearly need very big cable ties. Try the following site They even make steel ones but that may be overkill for a Mallow. Mallows (at least the ones I have had in my garden) are determined to be bushes so you may have little success in your horticultural engineering.
I second Brian D’s suggestion. I got mine in an old-fashioned hardware store in Norwich, but yes, you can get cable ties more than a foot long, yea, even online. Wouldn’t it be better with your mallow to cut off the lower branches and stake the thing with the horticultural version of cable ties,
which are broader and so less likely to cut into the plant? So if this sounds ignorant – I know nothing about mallows…
Nature Network: high-level science discussion or Gardeners’ bloody Weekly?
Jennifer – A Mallow with Bungee cords? Clearly the New Zealand Mallow but if it manages to bungee jump unaided it may be closer to the Triffid.
Hey, I thought mallows were in the Salicaceae – I now see I’ve confused it with something else that grows in North America. My bad.
Breaking news on the 384-well plate. I’ve just been informed by the French postdoc that the autoclave tape is not merely decorative; it is actually layered on to provide exactly the right amount of counterweight to the nearest milligram.
Ingenious.
I’ve just been informed by the French postdoc that the autoclave tape is not merely decorative; it is actually layered on to provide exactly the right amount of counterweight to the nearest milligram.
Don’t believe a word of it. That’s the typical reaction of a male DIY enthusiast when asked questions about his efforts by an admiring female. No, don’t send me brickbats, it’s true. Whenever Mrs Gee coos admiringly over my efforts at DIY which she charitably describes as ‘rustic’, I puff out my chest and start to talk all technical about engineering tolerances and furlongs being balanced to the precise fortnight and whatnot.
That autoclave is there to look pretty, and that’s all there is to it.
{giggle}
Henry, you are going to spark an international incident. Mon dieu!
What is better than plastic cable ties for holding up plants is nylon mesh netting. The cheapest source (which alas I do not have access to) is used nylon stockings. They can simply be used as a cord and knotted.
They are nylon which makes them pretty resistant to UV and the elements, they are elastic and distribute the load on the plant tissues without cutting in, and they sometimes come in camouflage-type colors (usually brownish, not greenish). They are also excellent to use as a strainer on the drain coming out of a clothes washer to catch the lint. These uses also constitute recycling, so one can feel environmentally sanctimonious as well as ingenious when using them.
The cheapest source (which alas I do not have access to) is used nylon stockings.
Now who’s going to provoke an hinternational hincident? Cries of houtrage from ladies all over the world whose ‘osiery ‘as been ‘ijacked for ‘horticulture!
I love the plant, Brian!
But I have seen mallows in Kingston gardens that are like trees, and with the peculiar dimensions and design of my
postage stampgarden, I need something tall and tree-like, not bush-like. The “trunks” of this mallow, which did indeed start life as a bush, have become so thick that netting and nylons (stockings) won’t do the trick I am afraid. At the moment I havepinched from the shedobtained some thick cord tied round the branches but I think the owner is going to notice soon and remove it for whatever purpose it is officially intended.That picture you have now posted looks more like a belt than a cable tie, Henry — and as I happen to live with an extremely fashionable, svelte young person of appropriate “trendy” age, I know where I can obtain some very thick ones. I will be even less popular than I am with the owner of the cord, though. Which would be worse?
PS Brian, I have just lookked at that site. Not only does it look perfect, but it looks like the ideal site to have up my sleeve for any irate cord-owners who require compensation, as it is just the kind of site that affords Certain Personality Types with hours of harmless pleasure.
I am so pleased to see everyone getting into the spirit of invention. Now you must excuse me, I’m off to fashion some cell culture dishes out of twigs.
In undergrad chemistry I was part of a committee that organized visits to various companies or government institutions for the chemistry undergrads.
Beer companies were always a hit, and as a result I have been to the labs of Grolsch (more than once), and done the public tours of Heineken and Carlsberg (that was part of our study tour to Scandinavia)
At one of those facilities – I believe it was Grolsch – they used their own brand beer bottles instead of flasks for some tasks.
I guess if you have millions of bottles anyway there’s no need to buy conical flasks.
And if you ran out of bottles, you could always empty a few personally…
This touches on something that really bothers me about labs. A lot of stuff could easily be re-used, but isn’t. I know people who take out a fresh tube for a balance and then throw it away each time.
Maxine – since the theme is jury-rigging, you could always daisy-chain the cable ties to make any size you like (as long as you have enough of them…)
I was wondering about plastic laboratory tubing, but uncertain how to fasten it in a weatherproofed way. (Bulldog clips would only rust.)
Of course you are all biologists. Engineers hold things together with Jubilee Clips. Just in case you think they may corrode – here are some gold ones.
ooo. Shiny kit. I am obviously in the wrong discipline.
Jennifer: re what you write about stuff being re-used but isn’t. Craig Rowell has recently started a NN group on getting science to go green, specifically:
Can science itself become a “greener” endeavor? What are the ways in which the individual can reduce waste in the lab? What suggestions are out there for industry to improve their “footprint”?
One to join?
Sounds like a great idea. The amount of waste I see every day makes me want to cry. Our institute can’t even recycle glass or cardboard.
And of course, greenness is often cheaper.
My advisor often said that I may not get a job in science, but I could always be a carpenter or electrician – I learned that in the lab, making and fixing all my own equipment. And I used those things by the bushel (yes, many, many cords to tie together).
It’s agarose in Schott bottles that annoys me. Every time someone wants 50 ml agarose they nuke 200 + ml. Argh!
I weigh out each time, and re-use the conical flask so it doesn’t even add to the washup. And I’m sure it’s really 0.7% or whatever; it hasn’t evaporated through multiple microwavings.
Grr
A friend of mine is a rocket scientist at NASA (I love being able to say that), and I’ve been near the cleanrooms there, looking at half assembled satelittes. There is A LOT of gold “gaffer” tape (mylar I think) holding things together!!
As to your wily French postdoc, that’s biophysicists for you! They (we?) love to tinker and fiddle and mess about with bits of kit.
Richard: Ditto. Exactly, actually!
I’m making a video/slideshow right now (I did a lot on it last night) about lab waste – mostly about how many tips and plastic tubes are used. It’s about a few days to weeks away from being done. It’s 75% creative commons licensed photos and sounds/music, and it’ll take me at least a day to figure out which photo was whose and how I can best credit them, and then I need another few days to finish all the editing and decide if I should add text, subtitles, voice-over (probably not the latter.) It’s pretty cool so far with just music, but I want to make sure that I get my point across. I do have some suggestions for reduction, so maybe I can list them at the end.. I don’t know yet.
In the last sentence, “reduction” refers to lab waste.
Biophysicists are all a little bit mad (sorry, Ian). Can you ask your NASA friend where I can get some gold gaffer tape?
From a gold gaffer, presumably?
>boom tish
Damn. Should have seen that coming.
The lovely Symmetry Magazine ran a great feature last year on the kludges, fixes and Heath Robinson workarounds of particle physicists, including one featuring a coffee can, a chopping board, an orange juice bottle and a can of Coca-Cola…
A couple of weeks ago at the Maison des Giraffes, Mrs Gee and I spent a pleasant afternoon potting on seedlings of various sorts. We soon ran out of pots, but recycling came to the rescue.
From our recycling bin we retrieved plastic milk cartons and drink bottles, and sawed them in half to make pots.
But wait, there’s more!!!
Even though the residents of North Norfolk recycle almost half their waste, there are some plastics that are as yet non-recyclable — these are the ones used to make yoghurt pots, soft-fruit punnets and cartons for the gloopy stuff they call I Can’t Believe It’s Not The Release Of Calcium From Intracellular Stores. All useful containers, though, for growing things in.
Sara, I’ve never heard of that magazine, thanks for the tip!