To deal with the static problem you might want to try the Zerostat
Anti-Static Instrument available from Sigma (part# Z10,881-2 $76.90). It
looks a little like a toy gun that you aim and shoot at whatever you want to
remove static charge from. It has worked well for me in handling recently
freeze dried peptides which can have a substantial amount of static charge.
Russ
--On Fri, Jan 15, 1999 11:27 AM +0100 "Tony.Houthaeve"
<Tony.Houthaeve@rug.ac.be> wrote:
>>So, what is the problem you ask? While
>>cutting into wee tiny pieces, the pieces: 1.) fly all over, 2.) stick
to
>>the razor blade...in addition, the human doing the cutting goes blind,
gets a
>>big headache and contaminates the sample with hair and saliva (from
muttering
>>disgustedly). Any ideas??
>
>
> Dear Jim,
>
> there are several things what could help.
>
> If the pieces fly all over => try cut the pieces in a small drop (20ul) of
water
> In addition to sticking and flying around => use an ionizing air blower or
a static ionizing bar to reduce all charging of plastic and other stuff (can
get it from SIMCO in Hatfield USA or others I guess)
> Big headaches => try cutting them under an illuminated magnifier
> Hair and other things => try working as much as possible in a laminar flow
or why even not work in an Class 10.000 clean room; beside of the
traditional wear gloves all the time and buy only highly purified chemicals.
>
> I guess you'll easily reach below 1 pmol then.
>
> Hope this info is of any use.
>
> Regards,
>
> Tony H.
>
>
> ===================================================
> Dr. Ing. Houthaeve Tony
> VIB
> Dept. Med. Prot. Research
> University Gent
> K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35
> B-9000 Gent
> Belgium
>
> tel. (32) - 9 - 264 52 91
> fax. (32) - 9 - 264 52 93
>
> Tony.Houthaeve@RUG.ac.be
> http://allserv.rug.ac.be/~thouthae/
> ===================================================
>
>