Before I came up to York I used a freeze dryer (another machine new to me) to dry the soft tissue samples so that I wouldn’t have the headache of transporting frozen samples halfway across the country without them defrosting. Samples have to be dried out before analysis so this would have had to be done at some point anyway. I’m a little worried about the smell: I think a couple of the specimens were not put in the freezer soon enough…or defrosted on their journey from Heathrow to Falmouth. I took notes on the condition of the specimens during dissection though, so I will be able to remove the less well preserved ones from analysis.
Having been in York for almost a week (during which time I have been through the whole induction process, got lost multiple times, and found a house), I am now sitting on a train back to Falmouth – I feel the Christmas lecture, Christmas meal and a couple of meetings almost justify this. Before I left I put my bulk material and some of the keratin samples in the oven (finally a machine I don’t need instruction for) so they can dry whilst I am away and will be ready for weighing when I get back.
Having been in York for almost a week (during which time I have been through the whole induction process, got lost multiple times, and found a house), I am now sitting on a train back to Falmouth – I feel the Christmas lecture, Christmas meal and a couple of meetings almost justify this. Before I left I put my bulk material and some of the keratin samples in the oven (finally a machine I don’t need instruction for) so they can dry whilst I am away and will be ready for weighing when I get back.