the Doctor

[opabinia]

The medical fellows in this lab can be a little absent-minded sometimes. I like to think that their attention is focused on the clinical side of things, and that they just space out in the lab or something. Otherwise, I'd never go to the doctor.

Medical Fellow: I have to make Paraformaldehyde.
Me: We have Formaldehyde already made up. Paraformaldehyde is about the same thing. Dimers form in solution, or something like that. It's just a dimer of Formaldehyde, I think.
Fellow: The directions say to make it up fresh.
Me: Shouldn't make a difference for this, but you can make a 4% solution easily. 4 grams per 100 milliliters. Make sure you do this in the fume hood.
Fellow: Okay.

five minutes later

(A beaker with Paraformaldehyde sits atop a magnetic stirrer on the benchtop.)

Fellow:: This isn't dissolving.
Me:: You shouldn't be making that there. Carcinogen. Use the fume hood.
Fellow: Oh.

five minutes later

Fellow: It says to keep this at 15 to 25 degrees Centigrade. Where can I put this at 15 to 25 degrees Centigrade?
Me: That's room temperature.

Comments

[sheepzeit.livejournal.com]

That's it. Do you think health insurance companies cover witch doctors and shamans?

[tiny-chicken.livejournal.com]

A beaker with Paraformaldehyde sits atop a magnetic stirrer on the benchtop.

I hope you have really fabulous health insurance...

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

Bah, it's not that bad. I mean, I wouldn't go around doing it every day, which is why fume hoods exist, but it's not like he was making ricin. Oh, and at least he wasn't heating the solution to make it dissolve faster, right, bottleimp? :)

[atalanta.livejournal.com]

next year I'm growing the plants ricin comes from!

and your fellows suck.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

Just like your mom. I mean, the ricin plant, not the sucking! I mean... Oh, dammit.

[frederic.livejournal.com]

In my graduate school lab, someone made paraformaldehyde on a heater/stirrer not in the fume hood. Boy was that evil... luckily we had a window in that room. Unlike at the Dana-Farber where there are no windows, just recirculating air...

And you don't need to make it fresh. I used to aliquot it and store it at -80 for a year or more with no problem.

Herm.

[bottleimp.livejournal.com]

To the best of my knowledge, it won't ever go into solution w/o heating and alkalinizing it.

Re: Herm.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

I was alluding to your Chinese post-doc incident. :)

Re: Herm.

[bottleimp.livejournal.com]

Oh, I remember THAT one well. I was just surprised that he was putting it into soln at RT. He didn't need to heat it?

Re: Herm.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

He didn't get to. After I shooed him away, he used the formalin I'd pointed out. Hopefully, he put the other stuff in the appropriate waste container, as I politely reminded him to.

Re: Herm.

[lepidosiren.livejournal.com]

Oh, I just realized what you meant. I think the 15-25C part was the fixation step, as in "fix the cells in NBF at this temp," not the Paraformaldehyde solution prep.

[anechoic.livejournal.com]

Judging from these stories you always have, I'm amazed that hospitals and labs all over the country don't explode every day...