#1 Science Forum For Lab Technicians

As I understand it, the gist of the problem was when Haribo first decided to bring out their sugar-free range they didn't properly research their substitutes. They accidentally chose a sweetener that has a strong laxative effect in a lot of people. The reviews read like the screaming gummy bear ...

Our cooperative teachers come and work through a prac as they write it up in RiskAssess. We guide them with what equipment, qty, etc will work for us. It can take a lot of time, but once it's finished and signed off, we "best" it with the yellow star which puts it into the Library called "Best ...

My confession is I tend to wear my lab coat and gloves even when doing innocuous things not cause I'm super safety conscious but just because I'm a klutz who's liable to do this exact thing at any moment

Ahhh , it's a very technical prac that requires very specific chemicals ......... Testing solubility at different temperatures . :cheesy:


Of course. How silly of me. You couldn't possibly test solubility without using quite a dangerous oxidiser :crazy:

Semi-related to the topic at hand but ...

You can't leave us hanging bigmack

Just what were they intending to do with 52g of potassium chlorate that can be subbed out with sodium chloride?

Also just noticed Hayley you're also in WA.

If you're in a public school, you'll have access to a Science Laboratory Manual published by the Department. The recipes section of it is pretty solid.

If not, disregard, but if you are the recipes for iodine water I described are on Page 77. If you ever ...

Hi Rosalie,

We've got one using methylene blue, phenolphthalein and fluorescein.

Our method calls for 24g of potassium hydroxide into 900mL of distilled water. Once dissolved, add enough methylene blue to give a deep blue colour. Divide the 900mL of solution into 3 separate volumetric flasks. You ...

Hi Hayley,

Just double check what exactly the experiment is because I find there is sometimes confusion from teachers as to what they're ordering when they order iodine

bigmack has covered testing for starch and staining (e.g. for making onion slides)

If, however, you need iodine water for upper ...

We make up 100mL quantities and store in the fridge. Mould is the only issue so when we need to, we'll make up the 100mL of whichever stock dye we need (e.g. Tartrazine) and that is right to go for as long as it lasts without growing mould. All things going well you can get a good 6-12 months out of ...

Muscular dystrophy:

This one is really good for Human Bio classes who have a good handle on inheritance. The results from this one requires a bit of thought to figure out.

The scenario: A family consisting of a father, mother and four children have had some devastating news. One of the children ...

Paternity

The scenario: A fertility clinic has recently been on the news, having been accused of mishandling samples. A couple who used the clinic have been informed one of the mishandled samples may have been used in their treatment. The couple are now seeking to verify the paternity of their ...

Annoyingly, our tech notes are too large to attach as separate files so I'll give an overview:

The basic idea is rather than the Southern Biological experiment which simply uses the properties of the dyes to create different bands, if you mix the dyes you can create simulated samples that fit a ...

Yes we add glycerol to ours and, annoyingly, have those same issues with mould. Ours don't seem consistent with when they grow mould - some are fine for a couple of years, others only last a year. We use our set up roughly 2-3 times a year with Biology and Human Biology so I try to minimise the ...

We've got our own powders to make dyes so I've never checked out the Southern Biological kits. Just did and what the hell? Why have one run in the opposite direction?

We use xylene cyanol, bromophenol blue, orange g, tartrazine and rose bengal in various combos. Our long-standing lab tech was ...

Yes.

If you're using them for hydrogen balloons, kill the reaction and thoroughly rinse off the granules and let them dry. They'll do what they need to do until they're consumed. If you need to make a fair few hydrogen balloons, it's better to use dry zinc as any residual moisture will dilute your ...

Well I suppose when I've seen some of the things schools are willing to spend their money on, 6.5k on silver nitrate for one prac doesn't sound that bad :cheesy:

But while we're on ridiculous pracs - is anyone else finding "I asked AI" is quickly becoming the newest version of "don't trust pracs ...

One of my favourites from the archives of this site was a prac that apparently required 4L of 1M silver nitrate and 10L of seawater

viewtopic.php?t=2710&hilit=silver+nitrate&start=1080

I'd love to know what the updated maths on that one is 10 years down the line

Why do you look at it on sunday and spoil a good nights sleep.......?


Yeah I'm very much a believer in separating work and home. Whatever works for each person but my time is my time.

Although I think a big part of that is the HoD setting the expectation of at least 24 hours (working days ...

The only downside I find with teachers seeing and booking the same prac, the first person who puts it in HAS to make sure they get it right

It's fine most of the time but it can quickly cascade if everyone mass books a prac based off an initial risk assessment with a mistake in it

We've got a bunch of the yellow Protech QM-1500s and have been using them for years with no issues. Like bigmack says, I think if you're looking at cheap multimeters they're much of a muchness.

My fencing club also has a QM-1500 in our armoury kit for testing equipment and repairs and it's been a ...