Being constantly surrounded by lab implements and constituents, it’s easy to forget how many cool things we work with on a daily basis. A plain old ultracentrifuge? It pulls a vacuum to let the rotor spin faster, without heating. How cool is that?? Tissue culture flasks are perfectly clear, allow gases but not bugs in, and have a special coating that allows cells to adhere? That’s cool. The coolest of all though, is the one ubiquitous lab tool no one gives a second thought – the 1.5mL capped centrifuge tube. Akin to calling all copiers Xeroxes, I have always called these tubes Eppendorfs, or Eppies.
Now Eppies may not look it, but they are a tiny miracle. They seal water tight, but pop open with one finger’s pressure. They can go from liquid nitrogen to the autoclave without disintegrating. They can spin at speeds of up to 25,000 x g. They’re clear, but you can write on them. They are free of DNAses and RNAses. And if that’s not enough, they also make awesome pranks. Pack one with a bit of dry ice, click it shut, and toss it under the desk of someone you dislike. Or someone whose attention you would like to attract. Or someone who needs a shake-up. The sublimating dry ice causes the tube to pop open with a really loud crack. Loud enough to send coffee up people’s noses, and to break up the day.
Lab is full of neat things, I just stop seeing them after a while. If anyone has their own unsung lab hero, let me know. Maybe I can photograph and wax poetic about it.
Eppies are cool – as is glassware :) I also love gas-tight syringes for some reason…
Heh, nice cross-comment Steffi!
Haven’t heard about the dry ice trick before, but I can’t wait for Monday to try it on unsuspecting labmates. After all, life is short and eppies are cheap…
That’s just mean, dry ice in eppies? And on a Monday too.
…make sure u do it in the morning, it’d probably wake up the snoozers.
More on the Eppi story (which started in 1962) can be found here. Appropriately, I have a meeting tomorrow at the Eppendorf University Hospital in Hamburg where the company was founded in 1945.
You haven’t heard about the dry ice/eppie thing? My word.
I think they taught us that one in first year.
Safety warning: do not try it in 50 ml Falcons. Seriously.
Steffi – Syringes of all kinds are very cool. They make me feel all official and doctorly, even though I am neither :)
Cristian – Let me know how the Eppi trick goes! Hope no one retaliates. Seriously can’t believe you have never heard of that before. Next thing you will be telling me is that you have never put dry ice into soapy water… Sheesh.
Martin – How cool! Thanks for that link. It appears I am not alone in my admiration for the lowly Eppi. I had no idea that they had been around for so long. If inanimate objects could win the Nobel Prize, I think the Eppis would take it, hands down. They have done an awful lot for science.
Richard – 50 mL conicals? Sweet lord. I hope you don’t speak from experience. Plastic shrapnel? Ouch.
Screw cap lid, yeah.
The experiment was contained: in my bottom drawer. Huge explosion, carnage. We couldn’t find all the pieces.
We couldn’t find all the pieces because you were laughing hysterically, with tears in your eyes. I can see it.
That might have been it, yes!
I prefer them low-adherence, as well, Anna – but perhaps you’ve heard that they are not as innocuous as you might wish?
Remember this,
AletHeather?Indeed :-P
Dry ice in eppies is old hat. I wrote about this last year, and got some great suggestions for lab pranks in the comments.
But remember: stay safe, kids!
Perhaps one of the popular science writers on Nature Network might consider collecting an publishing stories like your “ode to the eppie” (when recast into an series of autobiographical accounts of unsung lab heroes).
It would make great bedtime reading for all lab-folk out there. Centrifuges, autoclaves, eppendorf tubes, falcon tubes, vortexes, scales, spoons, precision glasswork, culture flasks and syringes. All rather simple, really fun and amazing to those verturing into a lab for the very first time.
Brilliant idea, Bart! It could be a supplement to next year’s OpenLab science blogging anthology, perhaps? That would be so fun! I could knock out an ode to an ultracentrifuge like you wouldn’t believe.
Love those B&W eppy photos, Anna.
Somehow I’m getting a sense of deja vu with this discussion of dry-ice-induced exploding plasticware.
1.5 mL screw-cap vials make a hell of a bang. Not saying how I know this.
Dibs on the autoclave…
I love eppies!!!!
take a look of a pic I shoot.