Salad anyone? Ranch, Thousand Island or Ecoli dressing

[Trials]

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I've always wanted a good microscope even though I have no idea what constitutes "Good"...

The most useful microscope for regular household use is a relatively low powered stereo microscope. (typically less than 50 times magnification) Great for working on small parts, looking at bugs and plants, gems, pulling slivers out of your fingers and the such, not powerful enough to view things at a cellular level or even close to it, but you also don't need to get involved in preparing slides, staining and highly specialized light sources, unless you want to.
Typically looks something like the one on the right in this pic:

You can buy some really economical USB video based devices that have similar magnification to an optical stereo microscope, but they don't feature the depth of field and large stereo view working distance that an optical base unit has, they are entertaining and great for some applications but generally not very practical for operating on something at the same time as viewing it.

If you want to identify the presence of extremely small specimens like live E.Coli micro organisms in water samples, you would need a compound microscope something like the one on the left and magnification power approaching 1000 times magnification, plus specialized lighting such as Phase Contrast or DIC (Direct Interference Contrast) would be best for viewing live (unstained) subjects.

To view single E.Coli with any significant feature detail would require magnification in the realm of 6000 times and much greater which is now in the realm of electron microscopy. Those are only used in research and cost tremendous money to own and to operate. They are also something you will need to mount on bedrock so there is virtually zero vibration.

 

[nobbie48]

Thanks for the scope info. Back when cameras meant film I had to decide between a woodworking shop and a darkroom. Wood won out and still takes the available space. Unless a stereo scope fell into my lap I'll probably end up with magnifying lens for my Iphone.

I used to trouble shoot electrical faults and it would have been nice to have a more comprehensive report with pictures but I would have also needed to upgrade my qualifications to comment on the pretty pictures. Anyone can look at an X-ray but you need the training to be able to read and comment on what you see.

 

[unL33T]

We wash everything but would prefer foods that the farmer didn't take to market in a manure spreader.

Do restaurants wash produce?

According to the comments on Reddit about this issue at least lettuce is almost never washed in restaurants because it makes the salad watery as they don't have time to properly dry it after.

 

[nobbie48]

According to the comments on Reddit about this issue at least lettuce is almost never washed in restaurants because it makes the salad watery as they don't have time to properly dry it after.

We have a salad spinner, basically a cheap plastic centrifuge.

If I wanted to go tin foil hat I'd try ultrasonic cleaning and then a heavy duty spinner.

We sprung for some romaine a couple of days ago.

1) We wash our produce

2) There don't appear to be new cases so hopefully the crisis has passed.

IMO Health Canada has been hiding under their desks researching used bubble gum.

 

[unL33T]

We have a salad spinner, basically a cheap plastic centrifuge.

Pretty sure most people do. It doesn't dry it completely. Either way, that came up as well and the consensus was that's too much effort and doesn't work well. I've never seen one in any of those restaurant shows so I'd assume it's not common. I know when I worked at Wendy's over a decade ago they didn't have one. Don't think they washed the lettuce either.

 

[daught]

E.coli is a feminist issue.

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