Goopy biological stuff...

[senoritafish]

Speaking of squid, I have been trying to improve my speed processing squid samples this week. Since we are down to one scientific aide, who spends three days of her week out in the field, we biologists are now helping in the wetlab. DP usually does not have time to process squid, which has to be done the same day because the gonads do not freeze well (fish can be put in the freezer and processed later).

A sample consists of thirty squid, five of which (the first male and the first five females) have to have their gonads preserved in individual jars of formalin, a mantle punch taken and placed in separate ziplock baggies, and their statoliths (tiny hard parts that serve as balance organs, only slightly larger than a grain of sand) removed and placed in gelatin capsules, and all squid have to be weighed, measured, and sex determined. VT and DP can do a sample in 45 minutes to an hour, including set-up. On Monday, I was miserably slow - it took me 4 hours to do two samples, and I could not find one pair of statoliths. Part of the reason it took so long was I was taring the scale after weighing every squid, which took probably a good 30 seconds. It doesn't sound like much, but over the course of sixty squid, it adds up.

VT told me yesterday, that I shouldn't bother to zero the scale after every squid. The scale weighs to a thousandth of a gram, and we only need to record to a tenth. It goes much faster if you only tare when the empty scale reads 0.08 - 0.1, because it won't affect the weight you are recording. I tried that yesterday and I managed to cut about half an hour off my time. Now I just need to get faster cutting. I did find all of the statoliths yesterday, though, and didn't even wash any down the sink by accident! *folds arms smugly*

I'm getting old and need new glasses. I've been having to turn on the desk light to find the statoliths. I didn't used to have to. Since parts of them are such a bright white, I'm wondering if a UV light would make them fluoresce and easier to see. I'll have to borrow one and see.

Edit: I forgot to say that after I cleaned up, I washed my hands, but neglected to to check my forearms where they rested on the table. When I got home, I realized I had streaks of squid ink all over my arms! Yech! Good thing I checked before I went off to my book group.

Comments

[megthelegend.livejournal.com]

Heh. My kid had streaks of highlighter all over his arms yesterday because he was a "stripy tiger".

Wow, that's such an interesting day, lady. Are you aware of aliki? She's a marine biology student and I think you guys might have a fair bit in common!