Tuesday, July 29

experiments coming out of my ears

good news is i won't be bored for the next 2 weeks, bad news is i'll be swamped in the lab! a quote from my meeting earlier today was along the lines of "i can't ask you to work weekends, but if you work for the next 16 days straight, i'd be willing to give you an extra week off" . . . as if that's actually going to happen (the latter part i mean) i know i'll be working for the next 16 days straight, but now i have no reason to feel guilty about leaving a bit early when my sis is here :)

so if you don't hear from me in the next few days i can assure you it's not my oh so exciting social life as some cheesewizers might think, but instead i'll be strapped to a FACS machine or with my arms stuck into an isolator similar to this (ours is MUCH larger!!!)one in our category 3 lab. For those of you not familiar with the different categories of laboratories, here are some cool diagrams I found which might help you understand a bit better my daily life . . . thanks to "Biosafety in Microbiological and Biomedical Laboratories" 4th Edition, 1999.

Biosafety Level 1 (BSL 1): well characterized agents not consistently known to cause disease in healthy adult humans of minimal potential hazard to laboratory personnel and the environment
Biosafety Level 2 (BSL 2): agents of moderate potential hazard to personnel and the environment
Biosafety Level 3 (BSL 3): indigenous or exotic agents which may cause serious or potentially lethal disease as a result of exposure by the inhalation route
Biosafety Level 4 (BSL 4): dangerous and exotic agents which pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections and life-threatening disease

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4 Comments:

At 30 July, 2008 13:46, Blogger Andrew said...

Have you ever read anything by Richard Preston, such as the Hot Zone or Demon in the Freezer?

 
At 31 July, 2008 00:37, Blogger mary o said...

Great diagrams and photos. Good luck on all your work. Wow, sounds incredibly busy. So I can forget the vision of you dancing, right??? Oh, well, another time.

Love, Mommio

 
At 02 August, 2008 10:23, Blogger Sara said...

andrew:
no i've not read either, do you recommend them?

mary o:
def no dancing aside from in the lab (lol)

 
At 04 August, 2008 21:44, Blogger Andrew said...

They're okay, a little sensational, but entertaining. The first is about Ebola, the second is about Smallpox.

 

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