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a culture of service...
June, 2013
© 2013, Hardy Diagnostics,
all rights reserved
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New Catalog of Microorganisms
Hardy Diagnostics has released a new and complete catalog of MBL lyophilized microorganisms.
The new offering now includes
Mycobacterium
spp.
They are available in packages of either 2 or 6, as pellets or on swabs, quantified or not, individually or in sets. Have it your way!
Digital Version.
Paper Version.
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What is he doing?
and what can we learn from a technique discovered by the ancient Chinese?
Find out
...
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Without the dust formation!
Hardy manufactures a complete selection of dehydrated media known as CRITERION.
The 500gm size is packaged in a wide mouth jar, so that a scoop can easily be inserted for weighing. This eliminates the need for shaking the bottle and the subsequent creation of dangerous dust.
All formulas are also available in mylar pouches that will make two liters of media (about 100 plates)...no weighing required!
Learn more...
View the online catalog.
Request a paper catalog.
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Brainteasers
Cranial synaptic work-out found
here
...
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Try HUrBi for immediate selection and detection of urinary pathogens.
HUrBi is a new chromogenic biplate that will separate gram negative from positive bacteria AND provide a preliminary identification.
One side of the HUrBi biplate selects for gram positive organisms and yeast. The other side selects for gram negatives.
E. coli
(magenta) and
Enterococcus
spp (royal blue) can be identified by color with no further testing needed.
S. saprophyticus
will be pink, and the KES group will be dark blue.
It doesn't get any easier than this!
See the brochure.
Request samples for evaluation.
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Think about it...
* If it's the Psychic Network why do they need a phone number?
* Why do they call it rush hour when nothing moves?
* Why do they call it "raw sewage"? Do some people actually cook that stuff?"
* Why should I care about posterity? What's posterity ever done for me?
* Why is it that anyone going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac
?
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"Wet Your Whistle"
Where did the saying "wet your whistle" come from?
Many years ago in old England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim or handle of their ceramic cups.
When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service.
'Wet your whistle' is the phrase inspired by this practice.
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Foot in mouth disease...
"The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value.
Who would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?"
~ David Sarnoff's associates in response to his urgings for investment in the radio in the 1920s.
Sarnoff, a Russian born American, went on to found a telecommunications empire that included RCA and NBC.
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Wisdom to ponder...
Robin Williams
American actor and comedian
"No matter what people tell you, words and ideas can change the world."
"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!' "
"Politics" comes from the latin word "poli" meaning many and "tics" meaning "blood sucking creatures."
Never pick a fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose.
Cricket is basically baseball on valium.
If women ran the world we wouldn't have wars, just intense negotiations every 28 days.
I used to think the worst thing in life is to end up all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone.
Our job is improving the quality of life not just delaying death.
You can do no great things, only small things with great love.
Williams overcame his boyhood shyness by joining his high school drama class, after which he went to the Juliard School in New York.
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QUICK LINKS...
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Want to receive the MicroBytes
Newsletter
at home?
CLICK HERE
Want to review past issues
of MicroBytes?
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Did you know?
Hardy Diagnostics...
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Is celebrating its 33nd year of serving microbiologists.
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Is
ISO 13485
certified for the manufacture of medical devices to give you confidence in our products.
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Offers you its technical manual,
HUGO
, which contains over 4,500 pages of information regarding microbiology.
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Maintains a worldwide network of over 40
distributors.
Send a
message to the president
.
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Fecal Transplants
Can we get past the "yuck factor"
and start saving lives?
Up to 700,000 Americans
will get this infection,
and 14,000 will die of it this year.
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Take the
Foot Circle
Challenge!
While sitting at your desk, lift your right foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
Now, while doing this, draw the number "6" in the air with your right hand.
Your foot will change direction and there's nothing you can do about it!
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OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOCOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Can you find the "C" amongst all the "O's"?
If you can find it under 3 seconds you have no need to worry about early dementia!
"Believe half of what you see
and none of what you hear."
~ Marvin Gaye
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Take the MicroBytes Survey...
Should the Federal Government Fund New Antibiotic Research?
For the first time ever, the US government granted $200 million to the British drug giant, Glaxo Smith-Kline to help fund its research for new antibiotics. This is an attempt to spur lagging research in this field while bacteria is constantly becoming more resistant to existing antibiotics.
In 1990, 18 major drug companies had an anti-bacterial research program. Now there are only four. Between 2010 and 2012 the FDA approved of only one new systemic antibiotic.
Many drug companies are no longer interested in discovering cures for infections, now that the cost to gain FDA approval is approaching $1 billion. Consequently, drug companies place their bets on chronic incurable diseases, like diabetes, heart disease, ED, anti-hypertensives, high cholesterol, etc.
In other words, a lifetime of taking pills financially beats a 10 day course of a life saving antibiotic.
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HardyCHROM SS
Cut costs of stool culturing!
Eliminate MacConkey, HE, LIA and TSI!
Reduce turn-around time!
HardyCHROM SS represents a revolutionary new way of detecting
Salmonella
and
Shigella
from stool cultures. This patented new chromogenic medium will eliminate many troublesome false positives and reduce the time and materials needed to workup the true positives.
A recent study
showed that using HardyCHROM SS reduced the cost of a stool workup by 50% when used in conjunction with the MALDI-TOF. HardyCHROM SS recovered and detected 100% of all isolates tested. It also reduced turn-around time by two days!
Another recent study
showed that a busy lab was able to completely eliminate the need for MacConkey, HE Agar, LIA, and TSI slants. HardyCHROM SS even detected several isolates that MacConkey and HE missed. It reduced the turn around time from 3 to 2 days when used with the Siemen's Microscan!
Another recent study
showed that HardyCHROM SS accurately detected 100% of 80 different strains of
Salmonella
and
Shigella
.
Learn more
.
View the testing algorithm
.
Order some samples
today and see how HardyCHROM SS can save precious time and money in your lab!
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View the survey results
...
Should office workers
have unlimited access
to the internet?
Every day at work, 64% of US workers said they visit websites not related to their job, according to a 2012 survey by Salary.com.
The number was higher for men (69%) than for women (62%), and markedly higher for younger vs older workers: 75% for those aged 26-35 years vs 55% for those aged 56 years or older.
Cyberloafing at work can use up a substantial amount of time. In the Salary.com survey, 21% said they do it for as many as 5 hours a week; 29% do it for up to 2 hours a week; and 39% said they do it for up to 1 hour a week.
Find out
what your
fellow readers had to say...
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Living Life to the Extreme
Recently a Danish scientist discovered an abundant bacterial community living at a depth of seven miles under the ocean in the Mariana Trench of the Pacific. At this depth, no light can penetrate and the temperature is an inhospitable 2 degrees C. Here are some other examples of bacteria that live life to the extreme:
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Inside deep-water ocean vents, despite high temperatures and lack of sunlight.
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One half mile under the Antarctic ice sheet, where bacteria appear to have been living for millions of years.
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Inside rocks in Yellowstone National Park's hot springs. Some thermophilic archea bacteria can survive temperatures up to 122 degrees C.
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A foot below the surface of Chile's Atacama Desert, one of the driest and hottest places on Earth.
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Inside rocks up to 1,900 feet below the sea floor under 8,500 feet of ocean off the coast of the northwestern United States.
New discoveries are showing that bacteria can, to our amazement, survive and even thrive in many areas once thought to be sterile.
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MODERN MEDICINE
A man brought a very limp dog into the veterinary clinic.
As he lay the dog on the table, the doctor pulled
out his stethoscope, placing the receptor on the dog's chest. After a moment or two, the vet shook his head sadly and said, "I'm sorry sir, but your dog has passed away."
"What?" screamed the man. "How can you tell? You
haven't done any testing on him or anything. I want another opinion!"
With that, the vet turned and left the room. In a few moments, he returned with a Labrador Retriever. The Retriever when right to work, checking the poor dead dog out thoroughly. After a considerable amount of sniffing, the Retriever sadly shook his head and said "Bark."
The veterinarian then took the Labrador out and
returned in a few moments with a cat, who also checked out the poor dog on the table. As had his predecessor, the cat sadly shook his head and said,"Meow." He then jumped off the table and ran out of the room.
The veterinarian handed the man a bill for $600.
The dog's owner was appalled, "$600! Just to tell me my dog is dead? This is outrageous!"
The vet shook his head sadly and explained. "If you had taken my word for it, it would have been $50, but with the Lab work and the Cat scan..."
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Crossing the River
One day, three men were hiking and unexpectedly came upon a large raging, violent river. They needed to get to the other side, but had no idea of how to do so. The first man prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength to cross this river."
Poof! God gave him big arms and strong legs, and he was able to swim across the river in about two hours, after almost drowning a couple of times.
Seeing this, the second man prayed to God, saying, "Please God, give me the strength ...and the tools to cross this river."
Poof! God gave him a rowboat and he was
able to row across the river in about an hour, after almost capsizing the boat a couple of times.
The third man had seen how this worked out for the other two, so he also prayed to God saying, "Please God, give me the strength and the tools...and the intelligence... to cross this river."
Poof! God turned him into a woman. She looked at the map, hiked upstream a couple of hundred yards, and then walked across the bridge.
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