23
votes
Accepted
Pipetting: do human experimenters need liquid class information?
In my experience it is very rare to see a protocol for humans that describes how to pipette a certain liquid, but I don't have as many years pipetting as others do.
In general, it is left to the ...
23
votes
Pipetting: do human experimenters need liquid class information?
I work on software that controls one model of robotic pipetter. There are a few reasons why we use complex liquid class definitions:
One of the selling points of using a robot is high speed. You ...
11
votes
Accepted
What's happening in the "C" and "T" stripes of a covid test kit?
This is a lateral flow assay.
[image source]
A sample is applied at one end of the strip and flows across to the other side by capillary action. It first encounters antibodies against the target ...
7
votes
Pipetting: do human experimenters need liquid class information?
Just to be clear, it has been many years since I have done real lab work, so I am certainly not an expert on the specific question. However, I have a fair amount of experience writing clear ...
6
votes
Are vacuum centrifuges the same as normal centrifuges?
A "normal" centrifuge = piece of laboratory equipment, driven by a motor, which spins liquid samples at high speed to allow centripetal acceleration to separate substances of greater and lesser ...
6
votes
Accepted
How can I convert plate reader measurements of Pichia pastoris OD to cells per ml?
From a technical perspective, for the FlopR package you mention (and I believe also for Jacob Beal's protocol) you can simply change the bead size and perform a new calibration. The only information ...
5
votes
Accepted
Do all plants grow roots when separated from parent?
Dear respected person,
I am not a professional botanist, but I adore gardening, and would like to help you as much as I can from my humble garden experience.
As far as I have experienced, not all ...
5
votes
Accepted
Is there a term for a procedure in which the chromatography column is washed with 20% alcohol
Prepared or conditioned for storage would probably be perfectly acceptable.
If you're looking for a single-word equivalent, in this case, I would translate as stabilized. From dictionary.com:
...
5
votes
Accepted
The information carried by nerve signals
Neural info is contained in spike trains, mainly in terms of spike frequency and related parameters. These spike trains in individual neurons can be measured by techniques like patch clamp and Ca2+ ...
5
votes
Why are IMAC and gel filtration combined?
Without knowing your specific protocol, it is common to use more than one purification method for a single protein. Given the broad similarities that all proteins and even most biomolecules share, it ...
4
votes
Accepted
How to best conserve a beetle inside a jar?
The answer to this question depends on how you want to preserve it - as a pinned specimen (also dry preservation, most common) or in a liquid. If you want to pin it, placing it in a jar with a ...
4
votes
Accepted
How does one experimentally obtain a hemoglobin-oxygen dissociation curve?
There are existing instruments commercially available to measure hemoglobin-oxygen saturation curves. Whole blood or lysed blood can be used; I would expect the instrumentation to come with specific ...
4
votes
How do bull semen companies get the semen out of the bulls?
Colorado State University has two helpful pages that explain the main procedures (h/t Tom). Semen Collection goes through the 3 ways that are used to collect semen from animals.
Semen Collection from ...
3
votes
Agarose gel Ladder smear
Are you sure that your TBE is at the right dilution? And that you're using TBE to make the gel and also as the buffer for running? That sort of wavy line looks like what you might get if you'd made ...
3
votes
Accepted
Using catalase-test to determine if Staphylo- or Streptococcus
Generally yes: streptococci are catalase negative while staphylococci are catalase positive.
The catalase test is important in distinguishing streptococci (catalase-negative) [from] staphylococci ...
3
votes
What does it mean when you "extract the filtrate with ethyl acetate three times?"
This procedure is referring to chemical extraction, which is a separation process used in chemistry (and biochemistry) to isolate compounds of interest by using two immiscible phases in which the ...
3
votes
How do you test soil for the nutrients present in it?
Send soil samples to a soil lab (e.g., here).
They will likely use the Mehlich III extractant method to extract and quantify the nutrients (most importantly the bases such as Ca, Mg, K, and Na). ...
3
votes
Accepted
How do you determine the length of an annelid?
Leeches:
According to Taube (1966)$^1$:
The adults of American leeches range from about 1/4 inch to 12 inches in contracted length.
Because leeches can bloat to more than 10x their "normal"...
3
votes
Accepted
What are wave frequencies in the EEG?
EEGs are often analyzed in the frequency domain, where signals are subjected
to spectral analysis, typically by Fast Fourier Transformation, or FFT.
What an FFT basically does is decomposing a ...
3
votes
What is the effect of the wavelength on the spectrophotometric measurements of protein?
Light absorption happens because of interaction of light with electrons (in a way) such that the energy of the light is transferred to some electrons that moves them to a higher energy state.
As per ...
3
votes
Double Digestion with Restriction Enzymes Using Different Buffers
NEB double digest planner is suggesting to use 2.1 buffer for your combination of restriction enzymes (XmaI 50% and KpnI 75% activity). I would be more worried about the star activity of KpnI in ...
3
votes
Double Digestion with Restriction Enzymes Using Different Buffers
If you haven’t already ordered your enzyme, you could get high fidelity KpnI, which has been engineered for use in CutSmart.
You could also consider doing a sequential digest rather than a double ...
3
votes
Accepted
Double Digestion with Restriction Enzymes Using Different Buffers
In my experience, a double digestion in CutSmart buffer will work perfectly well. The reaction may proceed slower, but incubate it a little longer and run a gel after the digestion - you'll see ...
3
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between ISH and ISHH? (In Situ Hybridization, In Situ Hybridization Histochemistry)
The term appears to be in use as a synonym. PLOS ONE is a good journal, and in it Okubo, 2016 write "The protocol for ISHH was described in detail previously [22]." Where [22] is Yamanaka, ...
3
votes
Accepted
T-vector creation
Personally I would use Taq DNA polymerase to A overhang my inserts, especially if you are PCR amplifying the insert. It leaves an A overhang on the end of all amplicons natively. All you have to do ...
3
votes
How do we know if a trait is genetic rather than via rearing environment?
It's purely and simply that there is no single answer - as in the linked paper, there's no "gay gene", there is a group of identified genes that contribute, but not all the variance in the ...
3
votes
RNA sequencing and taxonomic analysis of gut microbiome
The article that you link to clarifies in the methods section that there are two different extraction protocols employed, one for 16S information (probably DNA extraction) and one for total RNA. In ...
2
votes
Accepted
What is the effect of the wavelength on the spectrophotometric measurements of protein?
In addendum, keeping the wavelength around the absorption maximum for the light-attenuating species avoids introducing error into Beer's Law. There are limitations to the law, outlined here where we ...
2
votes
Genomic DNA isolation from wheat
Yes sure I tried this and give good result. But you most chose the best protocol and need to be do this manually. I recommend that use CTAB-PVP (which is use 3 buffers EBA EBB SDS %10) extraction ...
2
votes
Accepted
Efficacy of the 10-20 montage for EEG
The placement in terms of location on the scalp determines what region of the brain is sampled. The electrode density determines how many locations are sampled. The spatial resolution of an EEG has ...
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