Saturday, June 30, 2007

Milo protocol!

Warning:This post will seem hilarious only if you have experienced lab work, and have undergone the various safety briefings!!

I'm currently interning at A-Star IBN (Insitute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology) at Biopolis. Today, a couple of my friends at IBN and me went to the pantry on our floor to make milo. Each floor has a pantry and each pantry has a bottle of coffee powder, milo, tea bags, creamer and sugar, and a small box of biscuits/cookies. We wanted to make the milo and freeze it, and have it later when it became a little solidified. I had tried it before and it tasted really good, so I decided to make it again, for all of us. But there was a small problem. The first time I had tried it was in my first week of internship. Today, after 4 weeks at IBN, this is what was in my mind when I made the milo..
  1. Wear your lab coat and gloves. Spray your gloves with 70% ethanol to keep it germ-free.
  2. Spray the table with ethanol and wipe it with tissue.
  3. Take 4 fresh autoclaved cups from the stack of cups covered by plastic, don't take it from anywhere else! And don't forget to label your cups.
  4. Add 25g of milo reagent to each cup.
  5. Add 10g of creamer to each cup, but make sure you don't touch the spoon to the milo reagent that's already inside the cup. If you do, use a new spoon.
  6. Add 10g of sucrose reagent to each cup if you want to drink hot milo. If not, add 14g, because in conditions below zero degrees, the sucrose is less effective. Make sure you don't touch the spoon around, if not use new ones.
  7. From the water boiler, add MilliQ water to each cup.
  8. Since u have added the same reagent to each cup, u can use the same spatula for all the cups. Vortex. Clean the spatula with the delicate 'KimWipes' and place it back.
  9. Clean your work area with ethanol.
  10. Spray your gloves with ethanol and also the door handle of the freezer.
  11. Put the milo cups inside. Make sure that the pantry door is closed when you open the freezer door.
  12. After you finish drinking the milo, please dispose off the cups in the 'general waste' bin and the gloves in the 'biohazard' bin.
One month of work and this is how I think about non-lab activities!!
And I still have 5 weeks to go..

15 comments:

Quarter Past Seven said...

sab upar se ud gaya..
sigh! chemistry never was my cup of tea...oops milo! :P

Macho Girl said...

First of all, the life scientist within me must speak...

MilliQ water from a WATER BOILER? :O :O :O Seriously???!!!! :P :P :P

But otherwise... it was damn funny! I see what you mean now when you said me and clueless would enjoy this but the rest would not understand :P :P Too cool!!!! :D

Macho Girl said...

And oh, i do believe that the cups also go into the biohazard bin. Its got micro organisms from your mouth. Must not risk contamination!!! :P

Confused Soul said...

#Bart Simpson,
Haha.. that's why I put the warning sign there! Btw, it's a lot of biology, no chemistry at all! :)

#Macho girl,
About the MilliQ water, I had to write something special about the water boiler, and I couldn't think of anything else :P And today I made a lot of solutions, and I used MilliQ water in everyone of them, so it was fresh in my mind..

The biohazard thing was so funny! :)

soleil said...

LOL!!! I've been through life science labs and I don't really relate everyday activities to the lab. You've been there day in day out so I don't blame you. What about people who have been in the lab for years and years on end?!?

Confused Soul said...

#Soleil,
I really can't imagine what they must be going through.. do they do everything at home very accurately and following protocols? For one, their spouses would be really happy, especially the wives!! They wouldn't have much to complain! If I end up becoming a researcher, I'll definitely let you know how it feels to be in lab day in and day out! :)

Anusha said...

Bwah! GOLD! I'm still clutching my stomach from laughing so hard. :D

Every single step cracked me up, but I think it's the "Vortex" part that finally broke me. Just the thought of vortexing Milo is now enough to send me into fits of laughter!

And oh, btw. Do you really think it's a good idea to spray your gloves and work area with 70% ethanol if you're going to make a drink? Methinks not. :P

Confused Soul said...

#Clueless,

Thanks!! :D I'm glsd your liked it!
About ethanol,I would never dare to bring it near any of my eatbles, but I had to mention it in my post, and so I did!! :)

Macho Girl said...

Hey! Ethanol is a good thing to bring near milo! Now you'll get a healthy high!!! ;) ;) If i were you, I'd spray my gloves and maybe "accidentally" spray some in the cup :P

Confused Soul said...

#Macho girl,

You know I don't need anything to get high.. just plain air does the trick!! Then why waste ethanol? :P

shubhangi said...

heheehhe....

Arushi, now what will happen to us when we talk to you?? Maintain a distance of atleast 30 cm, wear a mask and glasses... If we want to touch you, we would have to go and wash our hands with anti-septics.... Hehe@@

The similar thing happened to me when I did C++, everything was processing in my mind in the form of C++ Commands....

Preetha said...

hey! seen ur comments on quite some ppl's blogs! was wondering who this is.,.. finally read some earlier posts n figured out!
Nice blog :)

Confused Soul said...

#Shubhangi,

Haha..I hope I'm back to normal when internship ends! :)

#Preetha,

Thanks and welcome to my space! :)

Mithr said...

hahahaa! Being a non-bio student, i could somehow relate to it. As shubhangi said, i compare a lot of JAVA commands to my daily activities. Enjoyed reading this :)

Confused Soul said...

#Mithr,

Thanks!! :D I just couldn't help writing this post coz it was really hilarious when it actually happened! :P