Petrol eye lash curlers :p

Hello everyone.
I noticed it's quite long since I shared my lab incidents with you
So after hunting my diary for quite some time I came across this story which I decided to be share with you all.

Hard life :p

Just completed phage assay after pouring the soft agar and kept the plates in the incubator...inverted. Shit!

#hardlife.

Opened the sterile swab and.... flamed it. Damn it!

#hardlife.

High voltage drama during animal cell culture

Heyo everyone, today the story I will be narrating is the one from my diary.  Unlike my usual incidents, this one is from my graduation years. 

We were about to have a workshop on animal cell culture in my college and my entire batch was excited about it, with my excitement going of the roof. I can't tell you how much I was looking forward for this ATC workshop. Because animal cell culturing is something sophisticated for any microbiologist according to me. It is that one activity that gives you a feeling that a boy has when he has a feeling of being grown up, a feeling that a bud has when it's about to bloom, a feeling that a seed has when it's about to sprout. 

Oh will you just shut crap and tell us the actual story minus your melodramatic exaggeration . 

:x Alright

I think you get the point. All I meant was I was very excited, more than I was during PTC. 

So finally the big day arrived. I wore my best dress for the day, tied up my hair into a soft updo, slipped into my pumps.. 

I reached the college and the workshop started. Our HOD from the biotech department was giving some briefing before starting with the actual practical. It was decided that first we will be demonstrated the technique and then each student will carry out the same. 

She took an egg out of the box which to my surprise was unusually brownish in color. As I am a pure vegetarian I knew least about different varieties of egg and I didn't knew what was about to come. Our professor, after candling, sterilizing,etc. broke it carefully with a scalpel. Everyone surrounded the table with our eyes popped out. And then for the next step, she took a sterilized forceps and shoved it inside the egg and our eyes got bigger. It felt like she was rotating the forcep inside the egg and I don't know if it was only me who didn't knew what was happening.
Suddenly the forcep came out with a brown thing hanging at the end of it. It was the chick embryo:(
It did all futile attempts to free itself but his bad luck.
But, this is just 1% of the cruelty that was done to the poor embryo. Without wasting any time, the professor took a scalpel and immediately chopped out it's head. And all of a sudden I shouted 'don't'.
To which she casually answered - "What?? We need only the body"
And she chopped of it's limbs too. Putting all the chopped parts into the discard, she mashed the entire body, till it became a paste. I just couldn't concentrate on the further steps after that. All the time, I was thinking about the poor embryo and exactly the same thing was about to be done to 20 ill-fated embryos. And just the thought made my eyes wet. And the wet eyes started to overflow when I had to do it myself. Literally my hands were shaking while I had to bring the embryo out. Though it looked effortless when the professor did it, it was not an easy job. Everytime I inseted the forcep in, the embryo used to dunk down to protect itself from the invading monster. That's when my teacher saw me crying and all my friends came to know about it.

Man, the last thing I want to do in public is CRY and put my weaknesses at display.
Yes, we are Microbiologists and we will all have to do it at some point in our career. Though I have studied so many types of cell lines, the bitter practical behind it made me very sad. Maybe it was my first time and hence I couldn't handle it. The more times we do it, the more we keep getting used to it.

So that's it abut the sad story.
But to make a happy ending we will end it with a high six, Yeah.
-Staph.

Epic plan fail

Hello to all microbiologists
I am Staph here and today I will be sharing with you how effectively I work in my lab:p
I like to plan my things ahead so that I don't forget even the smallest thing that I have to do when I enter the lab.
So this one fine day, when I had to do a lot of work I made a to do list, before going college. And it kinda went like this.

1. make slants and give for autoclaving.
2. protein estimation of crude biosurfactant.
3. carry out paper and tlc chromatography simultaneously of the crude biosurfactant.
4. subculture the isolates.
5. clean my locker.
6. update my rough journal

To get all work done I reached my lab at 7:30 in the morning. As per my plan I decided to make my slants and put it for autoclaving for my later subculturing. But as decided I had to first irk Dixy by telling a joke as my daily morning ritual.
...
...
...
Finally when I was satisfied that she is irritated enough I decided to move out alive. When I moved out, I realised that my 10 minute joke took me almost an hour, thanks to my unbeatable time travelling skills ;).
9:00 am - finally found all the components for NA slants and started to make my media.
9:30 am - still making media because I have to be very accurate with the amount of every components, so that no selective or inhibitory component harms my isolates.

What?? I guess NA is just a nutrient medium -_-
Oh yeah right hehehehe...Shut up.

10:00 - digesting my media.
10:15 - oops oops, it's hot...burning burning. Yeah my media boiled out of the flask :( No worries, it's just a hard time. You make it again Staph.
11:00 - done making my media and digesting it again, CAREFULLY this time.

Dixy: Girl, since 2 hours you are just reached till digestion.
Me: Don't ask girl. It's a long story. Anyways now that you are here can you get me a rack and a box of 50 dilution tubes.
Dixy: Yeah sure.

12:00 pm - Pouring the tubes.
1:00 - Still pouring the tubes. Thanks to one of my junior pal. She talks very sweet and I didn't realized when my media got solidified T_T
1:30 pm - Making cotton plus..50 cotton plugs. This is the thing that I hate the most. I just wished I could bring in some tampons and shove it right in the tube.
2:00 pm - All done, gave my slant for autoclaving and now it's my and Dixy's lunch time. I was super hungry anyways.
3:00 pm - Done with the lunch and now arranging my slants.
3:30 pm - searching my isolates in the fridge and arranging them in the order, this is another time consuming task. Writing the labels and sticking it on the slants.
4:30 pm - Searching and begging for loop and lighter.
5:00 pm - Finally started with the subculturing. Thanks goodness.
6:30 pm - Done with it. Packed my bag and left the lab.

Man, it was a really tiring and exhausting day. I was totally worn out.
Yeah, keep it up. What a productive day.

Aww, thank you.
F*** you. Bloody lazy punk.

EBOLO!

Hey everyone!

So I was going a bit sick since few days with fever, headache, cold, cough, etc. And since Ebola is gaining foothold in different parts these days, I was scared of having Ebola myself. Hence like any other overly preventive person I googled the symptoms of Ebola to find if I had it.

And guess what?? Symptoms that popped up for Ebola didn't matched mine.

I even went to the doctor for the check and he said it's just fever.

But somehow I was sure I had Ebola and had just few days of my life left with me, and that's when I realized true essence of life.

-_- You are always overly emotional.

Shut your mouth for once in life

So here I have a whole new Life Model. Straight out of a sick person's head.

Everybody knows a very common life motto that's been going around these days-

YOLO - You Only Live once. So live to the fullest.

But here is a whole new life inspiring motto which you can already see in the Title.

It's EBOLO - Everybody Only Lives Once.

Okay, I know it sounds literally the same, but it has a totally different meaning.

It's not only you, but everyone who lives once. So do not live life to the fullest, it can be dangerous.

Live life to the safest. And that's what EBOLO is all about.

So enough of the YOLO non-sense, get over with it, because YOLO can drive you and others towards death where as EBOLO will keep you alive.

Plus we can be proud of it, because it is microbiological and cool at the same time.

Hope you like it.

Lots of Love.

-Staph.

Massive acid attack in Microbiology pracs!!

Hello there ^_^
Today I am sharing one of the major accidents occurred with me during my post graduation years.
It's a very painful story, so please feel the pain with me :(

So there was I...
Sincerely carrying out my Sugar estimation by Phenol-Sulphuric Acid Method.
Too engrossed in my practical I was working as though nobody else existed in the world.

Girl, seriously? Sounds like you are making a mountain of a molehill.

Yes seriously, now you zip it and listen.
What was I talking about??

Oh yeah, so I was working on my estimation. This chemical estimation requires addition of  4ml of Concentrated Sulphuric acid. After cribbing a lot in front of the non teaching people, they poured it in a flask for me.

But eventually I had to add it myself in the tubes.
So after a lot of researching, googling, and lab testing I found out that burette will be the best way to add it in the tubes.

Hence I poured the acid in the burette using a funnel and started adding sulphuric acid in my tubes. Unfortunately my tubes were more ad hence I had to to refill the burette. T_T
So I held the burette and started pouring the acid in it. And that's when the dreadful event happened. 2-3 big drops trickled out of the funnel and started running along the burette towards my thumb in a slow motion. And well I saw them trickling down but I guess my hand-eye co-ordination is weak and before I could move my hand away, the acid dropped on my thumb. :o

Girl you should play more video games for a better co-ordination.
I have a good co-ordination, I was just too engrossed in my work. Now suck it up.

In a lightning speed I ran towards the sink, and put my thumb under the tap water. And that's when it started paining like hell and I cried in a way, that entire lab came down.
My teachers, non teaching staff and my friends gathered around me to know what happened. Somebody got an ice pack and applied it on my thumb. I will spare you the other remedial parts.

After everything calmed down, I wanted to laugh at my huge reaction, because nothing major had occurred. My thumb was alright, just a bit red and swollen but alright. Within a few days it was back to it's normal look. Seems like more than the pain, I was scared about the whole incident.

Wow, what a massive attack. Just a hoopla of a small issue. -_-
I said I was scared.

Anyways, if you have any such crazy accident stories then please do share it with us.
Lots of Love.
-Crazy Staph.

If I were A cell

Hello everyone,

I am back after a very long time. In this post I would like to share experience of my Microbiology Lab where I used to perform practical’s. I know that those days will not come back. So I just want to capture those moments.

As we all are connected to Microbiology, so you must have noticed that there is a tendency to compare everything with Microbiology. So in this post I would like to appreciate all those who were around me whenever in need, but to in different way. I am presenting one of my imaginations that I have made when studying about cell.

 I am assuming Myself as Cell and all the others as important components of cell.

I would like to compare our Principal as the cell wall of a cell because she was the one who  maintained discipline of the college same is the  function of cell wall to Protect and maintain cell in shape .

I was thinking which component of cell  should I compare with our Head of Microbiology Department....I think the Golgi Body Would Be Perfect as It receives material from ER and and Distributes it.

I would also like to thank all my Teachers who guided me. Mitochondria called as power house of cell, convert energy's into form that are usable by cell. This function is also performed by all the teachers 

I would really like to appreciate my non teaching staff ,as they are the one who prepare all the medias and reagent same as  Endoplasmic Reticulum. The main function of Endoplasmic reticulum is to synthesis protein and Lipids.

As Nucleus is the most important part of cell, there is a person who is as important as nucleus in cell .You all Know her, my best friend Staph aury.

In my imagination I would liked to call all my friends as Microtubules  as thy provided support at the times I needed 

I also had some bad experience .I had a fight with some students , I would like to compare them with Lysozyme as it contains chemicals and that breakdown certain materials( In this case my trust)

I have also imagined some non living things which were part of my daily routine , How can I forget my locker which I want represent as Peroxisomes which store materials. Also  if i were a cell the all the glasswere including St pippetes, Aparatus , test tubes etc contained in a Cytoplasm.

I conclude here by saying that , how much the cell is important of smooth working of organisms, but it is incomplete or non functional with out proper functioning of all components.

The famous quote is given by Albert Eisenstein that Imagination is more Important Than Knowledge . 

So keep imagining.......

If you also have  such  imaginary story please share with us 

with love 

-Dixy

Fire in Post Graduate Lab!!

Heyo everyone...

So today's story is right from my diary for all of you :D

During my final year of post graduation, we had some naive juniors who absolutely had no idea about any minor or major technicalities in the microbiological labs. In fact some of them were always confused about simple conversions like mg to mcg, etc. etc. and kept asking us the doubts making me forget my own conversion skills :x

What was I talking about??

...

...

Oh yes, the fire!!

So once they were extracting lecithin from egg yolk. For that they were supposed to boil the extract in petroleum ether in the boiling water bath. First time, they left the ether boiling, due to which it exploded and then everything was covered with egg, like in Mr.Bean's episode where he explodes the white paint to color his entire house. 

Still the damage was not huge and it didn't came into staff's notice. But patience is seriously not a virtue for these guys. Immediately after wiping everything they started again with the extraction, promising us to be careful this time. And this time they were too much careful to avoid the explosion and hence kept the burner a little way from the beaker. That's when the flame came in contact with the petroleum ether and there was fire in the beaker. Everybody tried to pacify it by in vain. The fire turned big and then  teachers could see it from the glass panes. One of the non teaching faculty whose brain was successfully working used the fire extinguisher and everything became normal in minutes. 

Thankfully nobody scolded us, in fact everyone started laughing. 

LOL, thses things are seriously a part of daily life of microbiologists.

Therefore, if you have a story of any such crazy incidents, then please do share with us :)

Lots of love

-Staph.

Wrote Aa - Zz ... as a Sophomore :(

Hello lovelies!!

Ever met a professor who is always probing for perfection??

Well I had a professor who was on her toes to assassinate us for every small mistakes. eg. While we used to make our dilutions, she used to take the rounds and if anybody is caught pipetting  with his hand in the air, she used to hold the hand and bang it on the table shouting

"ELBOW ON THE TABLE WHILE YOU PIPETTE, I DON'T WANT ERRORS IN THE DILUTION". 

So back to the original story. On the journal checking day, we are always dreaded even after checking it 1000 times ourselves. This professor used to check our Medical Microbiology journals. The first girl who went for checking had not written the capital S for Streptococcus, instead she wrote streptococcus. That's it! Sky came crashing on her when the professor started shouting. Being an over smart girl she made it worse arguing that it is a capital S. This fueled the professor more and she stood up to ask everyone if the S was capital or small. We were too scared to open our mouth and that's when she punished the entire batch to write capital and small letters A-Z. 

Yeah, too embarrassing. 

But I guess it has helped me in the long run. Because till date I write the microbial names in the correct pattern,and never  forget to underline the names too. And I do miss her a lot:)

If you have any similar professors, do share your story with us.

Lots of Love and be amazing!!

-Staph 

A Tribute to Microbiology

Hello every one , 

In my last post I have mentioned that Microbiology is interesting, the reasons behind that will be mentioned below 

Many people feel that this subject is boring because they cannot appreciate some of the facts. but i  can guarantee you all that after reading this you will not think so .

Microbiology is the study of living organisms that are invisible to the naked eye, such as bacteria and fungi. Though not living organisms, viruses also are studied by microbiologists.

Though many people tend to group them together, there are many different types of microbiology. Medical microbiology is perhaps the most well-known because it deals with the roles that microbes have in human illness. Other types include veterinary microbiology, environmental microbiology, food microbiology and pharmaceutical microbiology. Microbiology deals with many subjects, such as the similarities and differences between different groups of organisms and also with how microorganisms have evolved and led to multi cellular life . 

All these deal with the way microbes or microorganisms affect animals, the environment, the food supply and the health care industry. Microbes are everywhere, but we can’t see them. These mysterious microscopic organisms play a very important role in our lives. Some make us sick but many more are helpful.

Microbiology is a vast subject which overlaps with other life sciences such as genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology and even engineering. Microbiologists can be found at work in many different places. Real world applications for microbiology include: comparing relatedness of different species to which ones are evolutionary older (genetics) as well as understanding the evolution and spread of microorganisms today.As there are many different types of microbes,  there are many different types of microbiologists: bacteriologists, mycologists (who study fungi) and virologists - all working within even smaller areas of specialization; the variations are endless!

Microbiology is really fun!

Why is it interesting?

• It's not as abstract as most sciences are. It's a subject in which each time you study you will get a new matter to learn and thus the interest never ends.
• Microorganisms not only have a huge impact but are literally everywhere, covering all the surfaces of your body and in every natural and urban habitat.        
• In nature, microorganisms contribute to biogeochemical cycling, as well as turnover of material in soil and aquatic habitats.
• Some are important plant symbionts (organisms that live in intimate contact with their host, with mutual benefit for both organisms) whereas others are important pathogens (organisms that cause disease) of both plants and animals.
• You can grow Bacteria and Fungi in lab (isn’t it amazing). Different microbes show different pattern , pigment , shape , size etc which are fun to look at
• You can relate and use the information in your daily life (even if you don’t have    any knowledge about the subject).
• Microbiological experiments are fun to learn, looks like magic as growth only seen after 24hrs. You get to grow stuff... it wasn't there one day and the next you've grown a colony of toe bacteria... who knew I carry around so much bacteria.
• Also can study about different types of Disease, their symptoms, Diagnosis, Treatment etc.
• Also get to know about your body’s immune system.
• You can also get to know what process take place  in your genetic level. 
• while some microbes due to association of microbes with various human illness, many microbes are also responsible for numerous beneficial process such as industrial fermentation (e.g the production of alcohol, vinegar and dairy products). 

Thank you

with love,

-Dixy

Sadness is...not getting over with exams.

Hello there to all Microbiologists..

So I am back to my blog. Sorry I could not keep it as updated as I planned it to be..TeeHee  :p

I was busy preparing for my final practicals which was scheduled from 18th June to 20th.

As I had mentioned earlier I had to make my thesis and also my flex poster for the research presentation.

So day and night with lots of efforts on my PC till I felt I will revert back to an ape..I finished my thesis and my poster and got it printed 2 days before exams......I know its too early HiHi :D

But as my bad luck is always bad and probably worse this time my exams started on 18th but the remaining two days it got cancelled, all thanks to rains and high tide alerts.

Now the remaining practicals will be held tomorrow. But only God knows what will happen, as the micro-organisms we streaked on different medias on the first day would have enjoyed a five star feast up till now.

Anyways once its finished I will share my thesis and poster with you guys and also share some of my important viva questions and how to answer them.

Till then take care.

Thanks.

Lots of Love

- Staph

Heya everyone :)

So I am going a bit busy these days as I have to write my thesis for the research that I have been doing since one year..

So to tell you all about my research - the topic I am working on is Biosurfactants.

Biosurfactants - They are just surfactant molecules like your any other random detergents  synthesized by certain microbes.

Not going into very much details of its biosynthesis or genetics of production right now I will just say that it has got wide range of applications in detergent, mining, cosmetic,and food industries as well as it is applicable in medical purposes only.

I am dealing with removal of micro- organisms from hospital instruments like catheters, etc. using biosurfactants.

I just feel documenting your research is more difficult than actual researching...Lol.

It involves so much formalities and literatures....as in how to numerate a particular index, what flow to use, etc. etc. which science students are mostly unknown too  :p.

Hence i will keep you updated with my thesis writing and what small small points should be taken into consideration. As of now I am just done with documenting my materials and methods and the results obtained. The literature part will come soon and I will tell you how to deal with it...

Till then Laters :)

Lots of Love
Staph.

Life of a Microbiologist

Hello there...

So in this section I will be narrating you all my real life stories as a Microbiologist.

Some past incidents, some current on goings and also my future plans. I will try writing it on a regular basis and keep you updated with the happy and sad issues.

I will appreciate if you all share your stories with me and tell us about your life experiences :)

Feel free to share your views in comments.

Thank you all

Lots of love <3

- Staph