Australia's Science Forum

I should have added, thanks Noona for clarifying both of those issues for us. I feel better now about the decisions I made ages ago about not my responsibility to do RA's and that MSDS are better on a computer than a massive hard copy file.

I must say that at audit, I have never been asked for MSDS, just a chemical register/stocktake. And have never printed off MSDS for that very reason, that chemwatch is a few clicks away.

I have certainly not done a risk assessment being a dept labbie, but should the teachers be doing them? Was that mentioned?

I assume you have screwed the barrel off. Hanging on to the hose, run the bunsen under very hot water. This is hot enough to melt any wax. Then use a fine piece of wire or a fine needle to work into the hole to clear the rest of the wax. A pin is generally too thick for this.

Boy, that is sure flash. They moved a storeroom of ours only last year, and would you believe, the principal made them use the old chipboard shelving ie 40 years old, and reassemble in the new room. I was disgusted, as I was supposed to move everything out, so the shelving could be moved. I told the...

Mine always goes the murky purply colour even before I put it in the fridge. I wondered whether it has something to do with puting the NaOH in at the wrong temp, instead of after the temp goes under 60 deg. That's what I am going to try this time, anyway. But as you say, it still works, just not as ...

We have brass ones. They are bendable and reasonably re-bendable. When they get loose, I hammer the pivot rivet or whatever it is, and because it is brass and soft enough, it tightens the tongs up and they tend to meet again. Sometimes you have to be more artistic and get the pliers and bend the arm...

Here they use brown paper to detect oil in foods. I cut up squares of it. I guess that they mash the food in the mortar and put on the paper.

Not sure what the worm bit is. But I have melted sulfur and poured it into iceblock containers - only a shallow depth, and made little ingots of sulfur. Good for conductivity testing, as they last and you can get an alligator clip onto the ingot. Can't quite remember what I melted it in, but a beake...

Sorry to hear about your broken leg, Wendy. You may or may not be able to do the science job, full on straight away. I can only imagine that you might have to ease into it, or do light duties as has been said. The fact remains that you are SAS staff and therefore should be offered meaningful work el...

Well done finding this training site. I wouldn't mind going to some training, as it has been a long time. But we all got the talk on day one, that training and development will be cut drastically, so I got the impression don't even bother asking - particularly being SAS.

Loopy -I thought you were immensely funny I guess I'm old enough to get it straight away keep up the funnies!

I think the serrata web site was designed by a child, all that colour and so un-user-friendly. I find it so frustrating that I won't use it any more and therefore buy from them.

I have bought the solutions thinking they might be more accurate. But by the time I used them on the meters, the meter said the solution wasn't fresh.!! So I didn't want to buy more to have the same thing happen. I hate those pH meters anyway and pretend they don't work anymore. They prefer the data...

If it is state govt money doing the refurbs, we will probably have to wait a long, long time as they are rather broke. Maybe its federal money, but don't hold your breath.

I replaced our old ones with the red "hyper fire carts" made by IEC over 10 years ago. They have lasted very well. Of course they were expensive even then - about $50 each, but bought 2 each year, till we had 10.

Our new young Ag teacher rang the abattoir at Coonabarabran where we get out "eyes" from and is getting reproductive parts on Friday or Monday. I had asked them and they said no. So I suggested she ask and plead a bit. She sucked up big time, cause she really wanted the bits. So I suggest ...

Question for those of you who are going: does your school pay your travel and accommodation and fees? Mine will probably say they can't afford it, and I don't know that I can. But would love to go.

Hi,
600 Students, 6 labs, 7 teachers, 1 labbie(not quite full time - five sixths, one sixth admin)
yr 7 6
yr 8 6
yr 9 5
yr 10 4
yr 11 3
yr 12 3

We have always used potato starch with never a problem. I have never had to buy it though, as there has always been plenty in stock.