\nHowever, I do, through my network of spies, maintain access to at least looking at cool gadgetry.<\/p>\n
\n \nIt is, if you like, a kind of vicarious lab life. The forty hour embryo in the picture above for example: one of my spies is learning how to dissect them. As you might imagine, this is quite a fiddly job, and decent scissors are necessary. It’s just as fiddly when they’re a bit bigger.<\/p>\n \n \nNow, the thing about scissors. The thing about scissors is that, basically, they’re clumsy. It’s difficult to see what you’re cutting for one, especially when you’re looking down a microscope. But enter the Lumsden BioScissors<\/a>, the coolest kids on the block for micro-dissection:<\/p>\n \n \nAt first glance they look like forceps, but instead of gripping ends they have blades<\/em>. You use them just like forceps, in that you squeeze and the very ends come together first, then they slide against each other just like scissors. But from the distal end. Which means you can actually see what you’re cutting: you can place the blades over where you want to cut without guessing and tearing.<\/p>\n \n \nSo. Cool kit. Cool titanium<\/em> kit. Which leads me onto something else:<\/p>\n \nA friend of mine was telling me about her experiments last week and said that it was a pain, having to do a certain thing, and that it’d be really neat to have a tool that would do this certain thing. How to do it actually came to me in a flash, right there and then. I haven’t made any sketches yet, but I should, because it’s amazingly simple in concept and lots of I have lots of stories about kit. This isn’t one of them. Now that I’m working with the results of science, rather than generating it myself, I don’t get to play much with really cool equipment (although I do seem … Continue reading ![\"chick40h\"](\"http:\/\/farm3.static.flickr.com\/2593\/3667938529_debe1d9d24.jpg\")
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\nStage 11 chick embryo<\/em><\/p>\n![\"chick3days\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3417\/3667939143_b3fc744db7.jpg\")
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\nStage 14 chick embryo<\/em><\/p>\n![\"DSC01610\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3409\/3667820723_8e0e1c6493.jpg\")
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\nYet another use for pipette tips<\/em><\/p>\n![\"DSC01611\"](\"http:\/\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3340\/3668628570_37906795bf.jpg\")
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\nLumsden BioScissors. Apparently belonging to Clemens<\/em><\/p>\npeople<\/del> molecular biologists would buy it. And then, one day, I might actually be able to afford to go to SciFoo.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"