Month: May 2012

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Top Tip: keeping slides warm for viewing semen motility

Now that the weather has cooled down it’s going to take a bit more to keep semen samples warm enough to view motility.  Live semen is sensitive to thermal shock and the glassware will need to be warmed up in a water bath to at least 35C before you introduce the sample.

A top tip from the supplier to keep the slide warm and slow down the rate of cooling of the glass:

  1. cut a piece of cardboard the same size as a microscope slide,
  2. cut a hole in it the same size and position as the cavity to allow the light through,
  3. mount the cardboard on the microscope stage,
  4. mount the warmed slide on top of the cardboard.

When you order the live semen sample I will send you an info sheet so you are prepared before it arrives, so don’t panic if you’re not sure what I’m talking about here.

And if you’re wondering whether or not to order the sample in the first place, why not have a look at what a labbie had to say about how they managed it and what the kids got out of it?

 

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Top dissection specimen as voted by students

Hey Miss Vivi, just had 2 classes (Year 12) do the pig dissection. They loved it! Rated it their top dissection.

They have also done shark, toad and rat and the pig is by far the most popular. It was wonderful to see every boy engaged and taking part.
Thank you – from the Year 12 Biol students and teachers at BGS!!!

– Christina Jensen, Brisbane Grammar School

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One of those days

I’ve been working from home for a week now and I haven’t crossed a single thing off the list of “things I’ll be able to get done when I don’t have to go to school”.  When I get into a routine I’ll have time to write some dissection guides and run some workshops, in the meantime the phone rings and I can answer it, the email doesn’t pile up all day and keep me up until all hours of the night and I can pick up and deliver all over town at a reasonable time of the day.

Today, for the first time, I even stopped for lunch.  It was 3pm and the phone rang in the middle of it, but at least I sat down and ate something between breakfast and cheese-and-bic.

This afternoon I set out to pack an order for tomorrow, take the dog for a walk and be able to hang out a load of washing before sunset.  Then, since I was in the shed anyway, I thought, “I’ll just cryovac that pluck in the fridge”.

So I did.  And this is what happened:

cryovac machine full of blood
Never put off until tomorrow what you can make an awful mess of today - cryovac machine full of pluck juice. Yuck.

The pluck expelled at least a cup of blood, lung goop and general grossness into the machine and all over the baseboards inside it.  Between them, around them, under them – everywhere.  Ugh.

If anyone from the abattoir is reading this, then this is the reason I complain when the plucks are ‘too big’.  If anyone from the cryo rental company is reading this, don’t worry.  I’ve cleaned it, disinfected it, dried it out and turned it off.

Ah, well.  Order packed, cryovac cleaned from top to toe, dog walked to the bottom of the hill and back, washing still in the machine and it’s after dark.  Cheese tastes better when it’s had a bit of time out of the fridge anyway.

Miss Vivi