Australia's Science Forum

Thanks everybody. I am now a happy bunny and feel all ready for the next time we do phth agar. :D I used the phenolphthalein powder and it mixed in really well (I was worried it may clump). Fantastic dark colour. If it did fade it wasn't enough to stop it looking great and there were no layers. Will...

Thanks Xenon, my recipe uses about twice as much NaOH as yours so I think it must be the phth that's the problem. I dropped a cube into some and it went bright pink again. The recipe doesn't state an amount of phth; I just squirt until it looks dark, so not sure if I use as much as you or not! So I ...

We are not doing phth agar at the moment as we do it at the beginning of the year, but as it was being discussed I thought I'd have a bit of a practice as I always have one issue or another. I've got to the stage were it sets lovely and have used the unitrays to get the cubes but I am still struggli...

It is possible to change this to your own info. If this is a chemical that you make up on site presumably you are the supplier. I was given these instructions by another labbie. You can adjust this to your own school name and address at any time. Go into Chemwatch – type in your chemical ââ‚...

I think it means that they requested the MSDS from Chemwatch. They had that conc, there was no relevant MSDS and as you don't buy it ready made up it was put on there with them as the supplier. A lot of the dilutions have them as the supplier so I assume they were one of the early users who requeste...

I have reboiled phenolphthalein agar that hasn't set and it has then set really well. You need to boil it though and I'm not sure if there are any risks with doing that once it has the NaOH and phenolphthalein in it. I did it in the microwave. It goes a bit darker like a (mighty!) maroon sort of col...

I'm just glad someone got it! I thought I may have to explain myself.

(what else floats besides wood?)

A witch!

Thanks all. Managed to beg some from a local school in the end so all good.

We are starting our wine EEI and one group want potassium bicarbonate (potassium hydrogen carbonate). I can order it but they were hoping to get started tomorrow which doesn’t give me enough time. So options are beg, borrow or buy from somewhere local (SW Brisbane/Ipswich area) or substitute ...

That's exactly what I thought when I read it Ian!

We discuss a few weeks before hand what kind of things they are likely to do. Most of our EEI's are quite directed and so are fairly similar each year. Anything that needs to be ordered they try and get from the students as early as possible i.e. enzymes, get them to choose which enzyme then design ...

I'm not recycling it. I was just trying to get it to set as it had stayed mushy. And yes it is a dedicated science microwave.

I have always struggled a bit with this. Mine fades as it sets and ends up in layers of colour. Once it is set it doesn't change even if I keep it for a few days. I have also had trouble with it being mushy. It looks lovely and set on the top but then when I tip it out it is mushy underneath. This y...

You could try i-fab. They are Brisbane based but they do a lot of the public schools so you may find they travel up your way every now and then and could do you at the same time. May be worth a phone call. You should be able to find them on Google but if you can't message me and I'll pm you their de...

Made me think of this that I saw on Facebook the other day.

I would say your degree and experience will be enough. When we moved here 5 years ago I had never worked in a school before but had a chemistry degree. I was snapped up pretty quickly when I started applying for school lab jobs. There are laboratory certificates you can do but I wouldn't think you w...

I had a similar thing happen to me a couple of years ago. Not sure how the freezer got turned off. The red emergency cut off button had been pressed in the prep room but I've never found out who it was. I had pig hearts and fish in there and it is the worst smell I have ever dealt with in my life! :...

I always thought it was the other way around, mini in the prep room and full at the office. I thought the idea was you needed a copy of the full somewhere central where it could be easily located by emergency services etc. and we had the mini's to use to alert to hazards and give first aid info. Whe...