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MRSA and other nasties

Mon, 2003-05-19 18:40 — chris

A database of PFGE images for subtypes of MRSA (methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus, one of the really nasty infections you can pick up in hospitals) has been set up. Basically, you plonk in your band sizes after running a standardised protocol gel, it throws that up against the standard subtypes known, and tells you if you're looking at one of the nasty staph strains.
Not rocket science, but very useful.


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Tue, 2003-05-20 08:20 — Neil

Relieve the tedium

Maybe not rocket science, but definitely useful. It strikes me that a lot of "science" consists of students wasting their time doing incredibly tedious experiments (i.e. running gels) which must have been done countless times all over the world. Provided protocols are standardised and performed well, why not rely on another source?


Wed, 2003-05-21 20:16 — Greg

It would be more useful

if I could download the data in a suitable XML format :)


Thu, 2003-05-22 14:24 — Neil

Or...

...a well thought-out markup language ;-)

Idle query - what mechanisms are there in XML for binary data, like images? My only experience is in SQL where rather than store binary files in the database (immense storage/memory requirements ensue), a link to the file location is normally used.


Wed, 2003-05-21 16:34 — chris

lab monkeys

Agreed. Like any problem, there are two sides to this one. Bosses very often just get students to repeat and repeat experiments, especially if the boss is busy and/or has many students. That means less hands-on supervision is required. The student must bear the brunt of this one, though -- at the end of the day, it's your project, and your time. An hour's worth of research or planning or troubleshooting (ie thought) can save days/weeks/months of repeating the same old experiment, again and again and again. Most people have no one to blame but themselves if they turn into lab monkeys.