General STEM-related musings.
19 Aug 2020 1 minute read 2 comments Leonis
Speaking of making changes the other day, I finally decided to move most of my web activity over to Brave. It took a while to get myself set up, but I did it in the end. Some of you might think to yourselves why it took so long? Th...
3 Aug 2020 2 minute read 0 comments Leonis
Handling stool specimens may not be fun, and I don't need to go into the details. The cultures, on the other hand, are rather straight forward. It's another method to detect diseases in a patient. Note the culture mentioned here is different...
1 Aug 2020 2 minute read 1 comment Leonis
Part of working in the lab is renewing my certification every three years. To do this, I have to complete 36 continual education credits (CEs). While my work provides free CEs, it's not always practical. The downside has always been tha...
26 Jul 2020 2 minute read 0 comments Leonis
Well, the thing about working in an understaffed situation is that new hires are coming. And some of them have. Now, the training part could take a while. The fun part about training someone is that you get to know your new coworker. At the...
22 Jul 2020 1 minute read 2 comments Leonis
Throughout my training, I've heard of the fabled technique of mouth pipetting. As the name suggests, it involves using pipettes, but with your mouth. Sound scary yet? For those of you who have taken laboratory courses, you are most...
28 Dec 2019 1 minute read 2 comments Leonis
That PSA has been up for months in the department. And yet, I still have not come across a culture with possible Candida auris. For those of you who are unfamiliar with the organism, it is one of the latest worries under the CDC watchfu...
21 Dec 2019 2 minute read 2 comments Leonis
Beta-hemolytic streptococci (BHS) can cause a lot of issues in patients. At work, we have dedicated cultures for screening Group A (strep throat) and Group B Strep (labor). Of course, they can cause infections in other parts of the body. Unl...
12 Dec 2019 3 minute read 0 comments Leonis
Some Pixabay image It's another night at the job when I received a phone call from the floor in regards to a test. For the record, I work in the microbiology department in the hospital lab. The conversation would often go something like...
19 Nov 2019 2 minute read 4 comments Leonis
Back to the video I mentioned in my last post, the second part of it was about smart materials. In the video, the type of smart material falls under "photomechanical" material. As the name suggests, it is responsive to light. Blinds...
14 Nov 2019 2 minute read 2 comments Leonis
What would the future be like in the next decade or two? Twenty years ago, I had not imagined powerful personal computers in our mobile phones. And the world continues to move along with or without us noticing. Sometimes, you learn about new...
