Trying to save Freeside Atlanta's bio lab

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Nathan Burnham

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Jan 27, 2016, 5:45:04 AM1/27/16
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Hey I'm from the hackerspace Freeside Atlanta.


We just got a huge bio lab donation and we don't really know what to with it. We have a couple people in the space who are interested but most of our members don't know much about biology or chemistry.


So most of our members don't see much use for the donation and are thinking about getting rid of most of it. They gave me a date to show them that there would probably be enough interest and project ideas to justify it taking up some prime real estate in our space. 


I'm not in bio or chemistry, but I'm trying to save the bio lab by finding people who would use it for cool things and i'm trying to figure out what kinds of cool things we can do with the equipment we got.

The equipment includes:

  • A big hood with a hepa filter,
  • Incubators,
  • a liquid handling machine,
  • a rotary evaporator,
  • tons of glassware for airless chemistry,
  • a mass spectrometer for organic stuff,
  • microscopes and stains,
  • a centrifuge,
  • and a bunch of other stuff I'm not even sure what it is.

So my main question is where should I reach out to find the people who would like to play with this stuff. And my secondary question, is all of this stuff useful for bio / chemistry hacking.


Any help is appreciated.


Thanks,

Nathan

Meredith L. Patterson

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Jan 27, 2016, 6:05:07 AM1/27/16
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They want to give away a rotavap and a mass spec? I take it no one at your hackerspace is into drugs.

More seriously, though, this sounds like an amazing haul, and everything you've described sounds quite useful for biology, chemistry, or both. At the very least it's worth considering hanging onto a couple of the microscopes; they can be incredibly useful in electronics, especially if you have people who are into decapping chips to reverse-engineer them.

Cheers,
--mlp

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Dakota Hamill

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Jan 27, 2016, 9:59:46 AM1/27/16
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Laminar flow hood = keep
Incubators = keep
Liquid handler = keep if you have software 
rotovap = I'm interested in it
schlenk line and glassware/organics = I'm interested in it
mass spec = flip it, running a mass spec is expensive and you need a constant supply of expensive solvents and nitrogen tanks
microscopes = keep
centrifuge = keep
bunch of other random stuff = post some pics

Anything you don't want, even if we can't agree on a price, someone else will buy off ebay.  Local lab instrument companies will usually give you decent deals, just demand money upfront as many will try to sell it on consignment and it can take a long time.


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Hans Wilms

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Jan 28, 2016, 1:06:36 PM1/28/16
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I support Dakota here.

Nathan, I'm a Molecular Biologist who's building my own DIY Lab and I live about 5min from Freeside. I've actually been there a couple times. If you need any help identifying anything, I'd be happy to help. I may also by interested in buying some things off you guys. Please shoot me an email if you're interested?

Nathan McCorkle

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Jan 28, 2016, 5:50:41 PM1/28/16
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Wow, what a haul! All great stuff IMO.

The mass-spec and liquid handler seem like the most interesting to
non-bio non-chem electronics-interested hackers. The former would be a
treasure-trove for anyone into Analog or tube-based electronics, the
latter is a 3D printer's cousin.

I wonder if the mass-spec has any/all the vacuum pumps...

What kind of rotovap? I've got one that needs some parts, in case the
one you're talking about isn't complete and needs to be disposed of.
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-Nathan

John Bryson

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Feb 8, 2016, 2:30:57 PM2/8/16
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I'm interested. I've been looking for a DIYbio place. btw, A hood would be very useful, so you probably want to hold onto that. And you probably want to have an autoclave?

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