Specimen Spring Cleaning!

May 02, 2009 11:36

Yes, I'm at work on a Saturday, what of it?

It's a beautiful day today, by which I mean it's not raining. Got in a good five mile run this morning, cleaned my flat, did some shopping and wandering, and then felt at a bit of a loose end, so why not come in to the Hub? Time and Rift wait for no one, after all. Besides, there isn't a better cup of coffee in Cardiff than I can get right here. :)

When I was putting the stingray and the Z'neen into the specimens collection the other day, I had a lot of fun looking over the other specimens. The collection goes back over a hundred years! But some of the earlier ones are in dodgy shape. The earliest ones aren't even in formaldehyde; they're preserved in what was called "double refined spirit," which is simply grain alcohol -- basically, 100 proof vodka. :) Because the wax seals on the containers they used to use tend to dry and crack over time, the alcohol has been evaporating and the specimens have degraded. Plus I think that in at least one case, someone had been drinking the preservative -- ew.

Some of the older specimens are unique; for example, we haven't seen another Fthalki in a century. None of them have been analysed with our current scan technology or put in the mainframe database, which places us at a disadvantage should we need the information in the future. Especially in the case of the decaying specimens -- you should see the mould! -- getting this information into the database is vital.

So I've decided to spend my downtime doing Specimen Spring Cleaning! I'm going to drain all the old specimens, see what I can salvage, do the scans and analysis, update the database and preserve what specimens I can save by modern means. I'm looking forward to this very much indeed!

Ianto, I'm so very sorry to make more work for you, but I'm going to need more formaldehyde and a couple dozen standard specimen preservation jars of various sizes -- I'll get you the specifics once I do a full inventory. I'm also going to be calling for a lot of archived files so I can consolidate everything into the database. Jack and John, I'm going to be asking you to help me identify some of the "unknown" specimens and whether you have any more information about different species than we have in the older files. And anyone who wants to help me decant and re-bottle is more than welcome! You'll get a crash course in specimen preservation and it'll be a lot of fun! We can have a Preservation Party!

... I'm grasping at straws here, aren't I. Oh well, at least it'll be fun for me!

bloody torchwood, alien autopsy, current projects

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