#TheBumblingBiochemist and the Case of the Used Cryoloops. Can she salvage them to see another crystal? 😰 1/ pic.twitter.com/EL3wFpZZVj

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

In past episodes of #BroadcastsOfTheBumblingBiochemist, she prepared cryoloops to "fish" out crystals of her protein 💎 🎣 2/https://t.co/wN3GmqpLvV

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

Then she used these loops to go fishing and freeze her crystals in pucks 3/https://t.co/cvzIk1fs1d

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

Now that she'd collected data from these crystals at the synchrotron, she needed to make space for more! https://t.co/itc2LjbroE 4/

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

But the crystals were still in the loops! She could make more, but she likes to recycle when possible, so she put the pins in a sonicator bath. This bath sends ultrasonic waves through the bath, vibrating the crystals out of the loops (w/help from a little detergent) 5/ pic.twitter.com/2RNrFGWSk1

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

Then she rinsed them off in water to remove any detergent and loose gunk. But was the gunk (and crystals) really gone? 6/ pic.twitter.com/vqjChwCvUG

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018

To find out she looked at each loop under a 🔬. And almost all of them looked good! Mission Success! 🤗 She could (& did) now freeze more crystals!

Now for operation get more beam time... END #biochemistry #crystallography #crystallographyisstillcool #lifeinthelab #phdchat pic.twitter.com/6iTNAXCqF0

— Brianna Bibel (@biochem_bri) August 3, 2018