Dispersion of Agarose

[Richard Sucgang]

In article <C0nts9.4FC at ncifcrf.gov> toms at fcsparc6.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) writes:
>In article <01GTD30FXAKG0000FE at irri.cgnet.com> RSCOTT at IRRI.CGNET.COM writes:
>>I can't help cursing myself whenever I prepare agarose gels and
>>the suspension happens to overboil inside the microwave.
>
>We had a pressure cooker attached to a timer.  Put the agaraose/buffer in, make
>sure there is some water in the bottom, set the timer to 20 minutes, and go do
>something else.  20 minutes later you have nice hot agar and it never boils
>over!  No aggravation---but one does need to think ahead a bit.
>

Why so fancy? For standard agarose gels, we just use an old pot on a
bunsen burner with water in it. Put the flask in with agarose, and boil
(as they say in French) bain marie. Nothing burns, nothing overflows.
Simple. Cheap.

-rich
Richard Sucgang  : Dept. of Anatomy and Cell Biology Columbia University
(sucgang at cuhhca.hhmi.columbia.edu | rs54 at cunixf.cc.columbia.edu)
"...Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, individually, collectively or otherwise." 
			-Colm Wilkinson, Highlights from Jekyll and Hyde