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a culture of service...
February, 2012
© 2012, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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Reduce dust formation!
Dehydrated Culture Media
by Hardy Diagnostics
CRITERION powdered culture media is packaged in 4 ways:
Mylar pouch
- to make 2 liters
500gm
- wide mouth bottle
2Kg
- bucket with easy open screw lid
10kg
- bucket with easy open screw lid
The 500gm bottle features a wide mouth so a scoop can be inserted. This eliminates the need to shake the bottle, which creates irritating dust.
Learn more...
Are you interested in trying out a sample?
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Micro Tips...
Problem: My Motility media is cracked and has bubbles in it.
Solution:
Motility media
contains a reduced amount of agar and is softer than other types of media so that bacterial motility can be facilitated. Often, this semi-soft media will get agitated during shipment so that bubbles will appear. When this happens, place the tubes briefly in a boiling water bath to re-melt the agar.
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Do you have a tip that you would like to share with thousands of MicroBytes readers?
Click here
.
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Brainteasers
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Phraseology
"
Hunky-Dory
"
If something is hunky-dory, it is just fine, perfect and as it should be - 'Everything's hunky-dory' is perhaps the most common expression containing the phrase.
It dates from the nineteenth century and was invented by American sailors who used it to describe a street named Honcho-dori in Yokahoma, Japan.
The street used to be well known for the services it provided to lonely sailors, who went there to enjoy what was on offer.
It must have taken the linguistic ingenuity of one such sailor to make a connection between the words Honcho and hunky and to invent the punning alternative name for the road, Hunky-dori. The pun would have made sense too, as hunk used to also mean well-being and safety.
The new phrase caught on quickly and a sailor who was hunky-dori was happy for one reason or another.
Over the years it lost its association with a certain street of vice and what went on there, and took on the much cleaner connotations of general well-being.
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Think about it...
* How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
* Why do you have to 'put your two cents in'... but it's only a 'penny for your thoughts'? Where's that extra penny going to?
* Once you're in heaven, do you get stuck wearing the clothes you were buried in for eternity?
* Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
* What disease did cured ham actually have?
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A better way...
Attn: Mycologists
Are you tired of preparing slide cultures? Let us do the work...
MycoVue is a prepared slide culture tray that comes complete with a humidifying chamber and a cover slip. All you do is inoculate. Since the tray fits on your microscope stage, you can observe for growth directly on the microscope without disturbing your culture! Try it out...your satisfaction is 100% guaranteed.
Available in 3 formulas:
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Wisdom to ponder...
Bill Cosby
American comedian from Philadelphia famous for the TV sitcom "The Cosby Show" that aired from 1984 to 1992.
"A word to the wise ain't necessary - it's the stupid ones that need the advice."
"Having a child is surely the most beautifully irrational act that two people in love can commit."
"I am certainly not an authority on love because there are no authorities on love, just those who've had luck with it and those who haven't."
"I am proud to be an American. Because an American can eat anything on the face of this earth as long as he has two pieces of bread."
"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody."
"You know the only people who are always sure about the proper way to raise children? Those who've never had any."
"Sex education may be a good idea in the schools, but I don't believe the kids should be given homework."
"Women don't want to hear what you think. Women want to hear what they think - in a deeper voice."
"Parents are not interested in justice, they're interested in peace and quiet."
"Old is always fifteen years from now."
"It's OK to become senile. When you do, you won't know it."
"Through humor, you can soften some of the worst blows that life delivers. And once you find laughter, no matter how painful your situation might be, you can survive it."
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Election year advice...
"Never believe anything until it has been
officially denied."
~
Otto von Bismarck
First chancellor of the German Empire (Prussia) from 1862 to 1890.
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QUICK LINKS...
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
-
Manufactures over
3,000 products
for microbiology for you to choose from.
-
Stocks over
13,000 laboratory products
to incr
-
Is celebrating its 31
st
year of serving microbiologists.
-
ease your selection of items.
-
Maintains seven distribution centers in the U.S. for faster turn around time to your lab.
-
Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
-
Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
-
Maintains a worldwide network of over 30
distributors.
Send a
message to the president
.
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Micro Musings..
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Leaded Lipstick
Ladies: It is not so much a question of "does your lipstick contain lead?", it is a question of "how much?" The FDA has recently released the test results for 400 brands of lipstick and found that almost all contain some degree of lead contamination. The results were shocking to those that are concerned about lead exposure.
Although there are no guidelines for lipstick, The FDA's upper suggested limit for lead in candy is 0.1 PPM (parts per million). The average amount of lead in the 400 lipstick brands tested was 1.11 PPM, with the highest being 7.19 PPM.
See how much
lead is in your brand...
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Post-treatment Lyme Disease
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
Researchers from the University of Medicine of New Jersey have recently shown that protein biomarkers from
Borrelia burgdorferi
(the causitive agent of Lyme disease), can be found in patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) even after completing their course of antibiotics. These biomarkers were studied in the cerebrospinal fluid of those suffering from CFS. It is estimated that 10 to 20% of all those treated for Lyme Disease will have persistent symptoms of fatigue, joint and muscle pain.
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Fluorescent antibody stain of the
Borrelia burgdorferi
spirochete which causes Lyme Disease. (CDC photo)
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Antibiotics commonly used for oral treatment of Lyme Disease (LD) include doxycycline, amoxicillin, or cefuroxime axetil.
LD is a complex multi-system inflammatory disease that is triggered by the bacterial lipoproteins (BLPs) produced by the spiral-shaped bacteria,
Borrelia burgdorferi
.
Borrelia
are difficult to isolate, grow, and study in the laboratory. So, our technical knowledge of this pathogen is poor compared to our understanding of most bacteria that cause disease.
Laboratory diagnosis
is made by detection of IgG and IgM antibodies in the serum.
Transmission of the
Borrelia
bacteria occurs primarily through the bite of ticks. The disease affects every tissue and every major organ system in the body. Clinically, it can appear as a chronic arthralgia (joint pain), fibromyalgia (fibrous connective tissue and muscle pain), chronic fatigue, immune dysfunction and as neurological disease. LD may even be fatal in severe cases.
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The bite of the deer tick, of the genus I
xodes
, is responsible for the spread of Lyme Disease now linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome even after a course of antibiotic treatment.
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There is no credible scientific evidence that Post Treatment Lyme Disease Syndrome (PTLDS) is caused by persistent infection. More importantly, studies have shown that
patients treated with prolonged courses of antibiotics do not do better than patients treated with placebo
.
The good news is that patients with PTLDS almost always get better with time; the bad news is that it can take months or even years to feel completely well.
More information
from the CDC.
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Are you Tridecaphobic?
If so, you are in big trouble this year!
First of all tridecaphobic means having a fear of the number "13" and a belief that it is unlucky. To be even more specific, those that fear Friday the 13th are dubbed: paraskevidekatriaphobic.
2012 is one of those unusual years that has three Friday the 13th's. They occur in January, April, and July. Not only that, but they occur exactly 13 weeks apart!
This will not happen again until the year 2040; unless of course you believe in the Mayan calendar, in which case there will be no 2040. So, to all you tridecaphobics....relax and have a nice day!
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Seeing is Bel
ieving?
Can you find the second giraffe in this picture?
Give up? Scroll to bottom of page for the answer.
_______
"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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The MicroBytes Survey...
Should the goal be made larger to increase soccer game scores
?
Obviously soccer is less popular in the United States than other countries of the world. The sport is sometimes accused of being boring due to its often low scoring games. The current size of the goal is 24 feet wide by 8 feet high. Would increasing the size of the goal make the game more exciting for American spectators?
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Check out the survey results...
Should we abandon the electoral college and elect our next president by popular vote?
Electoral College votes from the presidential election of 2008.
538 electors in the Electoral College will pick the next President of the United States this year. Whoever gets 270 votes will win. Generally (with the exception of Maine and Nebraska), each state appoints its electors on a
"winner-take-all"
basis as a result of the statewide popular vote on
Election
Day
. This system, created by the Founding Fathers in the Constitution, accentuates t
he importance of key swing states.
Although many attempts have been made to abolish this archaic system, Congress has never approved.
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"I hear, and I forget.
I see, and I remember.
I do, and I understand."
."
Confucius
Chinese Philosopher
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"God is good...
but never dance in a small boat."
~
Irish Proverb
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We're giving away one
free kindle
every month to those who "like us"!
Answer to giraffe illusion:
Look on the neck of the giraffe for the word "giraffe."
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