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Nonscientists don't really know what it means to shop. I don't leave my lab very often, so I buy only exactly what I need from hardware stores, drugstores, pet shops, toy shops, lapidary suppliers, and grocery stores. I usually buy the following items. Can you guess their uses?
1. set of screwdrivers
2. bottle of Clorox bleach
3. pair of carbon pencils
4. craft glue
5. Scotch tape
6. assortment of textile dyes
7. colored ruler
8. container of cleaning solution
9. set of transparent polyethylene bags
10. roll of Saran wrap
11. roll of colored Reynolds wrap
12. 100 sheets of photographic film
13. lump of paraffin wax
14. one strong magnetic pin
15. one box of toothpicks
16. box of cotton balls
17. toothpaste
18. antistatic spray
19. one graduate of mealworms (Tenebrio molitor larvae)
20. 10 g of gem-polishing compound (cerium oxide, CeO2)
21. one brick-box Lego
22. one box of nonfat dry milk
23. one kilo of sugar
24. one kilo of salt
25. 100 g of Knox unflavored gelatin
26. one liter of motor oil
27. one box of dish detergent
28. assortment of Easter eggs dyes
29. bottle of beer
30. bottle of wine
They're for:
1. pipette adjustment, computer fan replacement, stuck centrifuge opening, etc.
2. preventive cleaning of PCR contamination
3. anode and catode in electrophoresis [1]
4. nucleic acid extraction from paraffin-embedded tissues [2]
5. fixing of small tissue sections [3] and of other tiny things
6. chromatography of proteins [4]
7. scaling of UV transilluminator image
8. tube and glass silanization [5]
9. pouch in Joey Penguin polyacrylamide gel casting
10. polyacrylamide gel drying
11. enhancement of digital imaging [6]
12. calibrated autoradiography [7]
13. hot-start PCR [8]
14. small scale DNA extraction with magnetic beads [9,10]
15. PCR sample picking [11]
16. regular cleaning of cycler wells
17. clearing of sequencing glass plates
18. contamination prevention, easing of weighing of miniscule substance and of small-volume pipetting
19. construction of electrophoresis ladder [12]
20. profound clearing of sequencing glass plates [5]
21. construction of electrophoresis chamber [13]
22. membrane blocking [14,15]
23. DNA extraction [16]
24. DNA extraction [17]
25. electrophoresis gel matrix [1] and for gel exclusion [18]
26. phenol distilation
27. DNA extraction [19,20]
28. tracking of electrophoresis sample [1]
29. ischemic stroke prevention [21]
30. more ischemic stroke prevention [22]Disclaimers: I will not take any responsibility for anyone who hurts herself/himself while trying the suggestions above. I am not supported by any of the companies whose products are mentioned above.
Jiri Drabek is a molecular geneticist living in the Czech Republic. His major interests include detection of mutations and polymorphisms.
Michelle Flynn is a professional artist whose work may be seen throughout the United States and Canada. Until recently, Michelle was the staff artist for the magazine Warmwater FlyFishing from Abenaki Publishers.
