(no subject)

[moonwise]

Got this message from the departmental secretary.


Public Safety and our Office of Health and Safety are advising that people from the F.B.I. may be on campus and may want to visit buildings with laboratories, etc. They will be accompanied by people from Public Safety or OHS and may want to ask questions about access to your labs, materials therein, etc.

@_@

they're after me!

but seriously... it's probably not a surprise, esp considering that many of the letters containing anthrax were sent out of Trenton, and that's a stone's throw from here...

Comments

[ssilverfish.livejournal.com]

This morning when I went for my microscopy training, the guy training me went looking for a sample for me to practice on since I hadn't brought one of my own. He left for a few minutes, and when he returned, he said, "I found some anthrax for you to look at." Because I was in a friendly mood (because he gave me a cup of coffee), I laughed, though I didn't think it was that funny. (Though the media constantly referring to the bacteria as "the anthrax virus" still makes me chuckle).

I found and focused on a bacterial cell which was surrounded by a thick matrix, and showed it to the guy. "Good," he said. "You can clearly see the macrophage consuming the anthrax." Huh? It really was anthrax after all. It was fixed, embedded in plastic resin, and cut into thin sections so it was certainly dead, but it was indeed Bacillus anthracis.

I think the whole iron-your-snail-mail thing is a bit overblown, but I'll admit that the number of cases popping up is a bit worrysome. I don't think I'm personally in any danger, but I still don't like it.