the robust worm

[Dr. Bruce Wightman]

Thanks to everyone who wrote me expressing sympathy and/or providing
advice regarding the unplanned warming of our strain collection.  In case
anyone is curious, should this ever happen to you, I can summarize the
apparent consensus opinion from others and our unplanned "experiment."

Frozen worms seem to be just fine spending some time at -35 degrees.
Several researchers reported keeping frozen worms at -20 (non frost-free
of course) for periods of time up to week or so without too much problem.  On
the other hand, temperatures much above -20 probably spell disaster.

Time to stop putting off buying that liq N2 dewar...

---------------------
Bruce C. Wightman		wightman at muhlenberg.edu
Assistant Professor		610-821-3254
Biology Department		fax: 610-821-9809
Muhlenberg College
2400 Chew St.
Allentown, PA   18104