Dr. John H. Watson (
theblogger) wrote in
ataraxion2012-10-15 10:54 pm
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
Voice; Obligatory MedBay Call + Others
Good afternoon, Tranquility.
This is Doctor Watson from medbay with just a few, quick announcements.
First, some of you may or may not have noticed that I was absent for the greater portion of the last jump. Sorry - that's about as much as I know about it as well. Anyone who was looking for me, specifically, can contact me at this number.
Secondly, due to my absence, I don't know if anyone new has joined on to the medical team or not [ He doesn't really sound hopeful in that aspect. ] or if anyone's left, so I'd like to call for a quick headcount of our current staff, if you wouldn't mind.
I'd also like the staff to quickly jot down their availability for shifts on the roster I attach.
SHIFT ROSTER
Medbay is always looking for more staff. No experience necessary, just time and dedication to the job. If you're interested, contact me and we'll run through a brief interview with the other senior staff.
JOB SIGN-UP
Finally... I'm sure many of you have noticed we've gotten another Sherlock Holmes aboard. For those of you who don't know, there are three of them.
Two of them look completely identical and sign their texts. Those ones are Seven and Eleven. [ Go ahead and have yourself a chuckle, Americans. ]
Eleven is directly from London. He has never been on the Tranquility before this jump, so please don't try and treat him as if you know him, or expect him to act like he did when you knew him. I'm telling you this so you don't have to hear it from him - he's got a [ A soft grunt of a laugh-not-laugh. ] particular way of putting things. Some things do stay the same.
That's it.
[[ OOC: Info on John's disappearance and his jump post (for anyone interested) is here.
Also! I made a general medbay log post for anyone who wanted to write about lasting injuries from last month/just a catch-all for the area. You can find that here! ]]
This is Doctor Watson from medbay with just a few, quick announcements.
First, some of you may or may not have noticed that I was absent for the greater portion of the last jump. Sorry - that's about as much as I know about it as well. Anyone who was looking for me, specifically, can contact me at this number.
Secondly, due to my absence, I don't know if anyone new has joined on to the medical team or not [ He doesn't really sound hopeful in that aspect. ] or if anyone's left, so I'd like to call for a quick headcount of our current staff, if you wouldn't mind.
I'd also like the staff to quickly jot down their availability for shifts on the roster I attach.
SHIFT ROSTER
Medbay is always looking for more staff. No experience necessary, just time and dedication to the job. If you're interested, contact me and we'll run through a brief interview with the other senior staff.
JOB SIGN-UP
Finally... I'm sure many of you have noticed we've gotten another Sherlock Holmes aboard. For those of you who don't know, there are three of them.
Two of them look completely identical and sign their texts. Those ones are Seven and Eleven. [ Go ahead and have yourself a chuckle, Americans. ]
Eleven is directly from London. He has never been on the Tranquility before this jump, so please don't try and treat him as if you know him, or expect him to act like he did when you knew him. I'm telling you this so you don't have to hear it from him - he's got a [ A soft grunt of a laugh-not-laugh. ] particular way of putting things. Some things do stay the same.
That's it.
[[ OOC: Info on John's disappearance and his jump post (for anyone interested) is here.
Also! I made a general medbay log post for anyone who wanted to write about lasting injuries from last month/just a catch-all for the area. You can find that here! ]]
text;
Do what? That's a complete non sequitur. Has
the artificial gravity here begun to cause
neurological damage or are you just having
some sort of fit?
SH
text;
Cry me a river.
text;
What the Hell are you on about?
SH
text;
It's a bittersweet symphony, this life.
[ Violins.]
You may be right. I may be crazy. But it just may be a lunatic you're looking for.
[ Who the Hell doesn't know Billy Joel? Also, he's pretty sure this one's been on more than a few taxi radios, if the station wasn't ethnic. ]
Nobody does it better, though sometimes I wish they could.
[ James Bond, like he didn't make you sit through enough of them. ]
Coming out your mouth with your blah, blah, blah
Zip your lips like a padlock.
And meet me at the back with the Jack and the jukebox.
[ Jeremy Kyle has more than a few chavs and slags, and there's no dirtier intro than a Ke$ha song. He barely manages typing it - almost bites through his lip when he does. ]
text;
Wait a minute-
Wasn't that song on the Jeremy Kyle show?
It all suddenly clicks as he skims back through the texts and sees the patterns there even if he doesn't know the majority of the songs these lyrics pull from. Because, you know, he listens to actual proper music. ]
Hilarious, John. Truly.
SH
text;
seri oiasly
text;
And you call me childish. Very mature of you.
SH
[ And stop that chuckling already, Jesus Christ. He reaches up and thumps his fist against the window nearby for good measure. ]
text;
Ok. Ok. ]
World's 8th Wonder, your mind.
But your filing system, ffs.
text; 1/2
consider rubbish pop music to be worth the storage
space it would take up? Would probably taint every
piece of information around it to boot. Deleted on
entry. Now stop lollygagging and get out here.
SH
text; 2/2
After all, the party doesn't start until you walk in.
SH
text 2 action
:)
[ It's a minute or two more, but there is sound of movement coming from the office before then. The door unlocks, then opens, and John is perfectly composed. There's a certain consideration in his gaze as he looks at the younger man, though, a bit of wariness but also a flicker of light that could surely be the start of warmth.
Then he squints a little at the other, bemused. ]
Why're you still here? What do you want me for?
[ This said with an air of feigned admonishment and exasperation. Sherlock's like the child that yanks at him until he's paid attention to, until adult work is set aside to come see whatever he's set up with his blocks. You barmy bastard seems to be implied. ]
Not scared you'll get lost, are you?
action;
Hardly. I just need access to some of the chemicals you have locked up in the cupboard. Need my work table fully stocked, after all.
[ With that he offers a dismissive wave to his right and, yes, sure enough he's completely cleared a table of its medical supplies and collected... well... everything. Like a magpie on a shopping spree he's snatched up anything that appears to be of even remote use and interest to accompany beakers, petri dishes, a Bunsen burner and what he figured looked reasonably close to a microscope. It's all there in an impressive sprawl of clutter, a shining tribute to his mess of a work station in the kitchen back home. ]
Just put whatever you've got next to the large hunk of metal and knobs on the right side and I'll sort through it when it suits me.
action;
Like Hell I will! Uh-uh, Sherlock, this is going right back where it belongs.
I'm serious.
If you've got to have your lab right here, you go knick your equipment from the bloody Science Department. This is medbay's.
action;
And who will let me into their chemical cupboard?
[ Oh yes, there is an implied trade there. Return of your precious equipment if you help him snatch it up from somebody else. Isn't that just so diplomatic of him? ]
action;
Well, if you sign up as staff, you could get into their chemical cupboard. Ours are programmed for our numbers, but Sci-Department might not be.
[ Rolling up his sleeve, he exposes the bright tattoo on his forearm, tapping the 'SCI' before his regular number. ]
Even if they are, god, I've seen you do more with less for getting permission.
[ He walks over to the table, peering down at the equipment. His hand settles on that thing which Sherlock thought was a microscope. ]
Besides, I think you might need me to tell you what some of these things do. Microscope, yeah?
Actually an eye-surgery device. You're welcome.
action;
At what point did I say I wasn't going to get them one way or the other? It would just make my life easier to have you there to carry the equipment back.
[ And speaking of equipment. When that little error is pointed out his eyebrows shoot up -- but not quite in the Oh my God I could have injured myself what a close call way a normal person would have. More along the Surgery device you say, how can I test to see how that works with minimal risk of permanent blindness I wonder lines of thought that tend to make him look a bit like a psychopath to the general populous. ]
Really.
[ And then he's up and on his feet, interest in his new acquisitions sparked anew. If there's toys like that here, what sort of goodies could they have tucked away in the Science Department? It gives him a chill of excitement just to think of it. Anything that he can't figure out how to pinch himself he bets he could talk that Spock fellow into acquiring for him. He's smirking already at the thought, a great greedy dragon ready to add more treasure to his hoard. ]
And this here?
[ He taps the hunk of metal with the knobs and lights. He couldn't even begin to figure out what it did, but it was shiny and interesting and that was enough for him. ]
action; [1/2]
[ But shit. Shit. That look is not a particularly good look.
The one John gives in return is his most concentrated Don't You Dare. If I even think you're going to dare, you'll never see this again.
While his other senses are disconcertingly keen, good god, the last thing Sherlock needs to lose is his eye-sight.
Regarding the new machine... oh. But then John deadpans, staring at the other man. ]
Medbay's.
action; [2/3] I'm a filthy liar
But then, John can't quite resist showing off in front of Sherlock any more than the opposite is true. He so rarely gets the chance.
So he reaches over and plucks up a glass slide from the table nearby, careful to hold it by its edges. With his free hand, he flips the switch of the machine on and touches the knobs. The lights flicker and project a holographic blue screen, which fills with white text shortly after.
John selects a few things on the available menu quickly, and there's a brief click of a slot falling open on the side of the device.
He uses his index finger to swab the inside of his cheek, smears the sample on the slide, and slips it far into the slot that the device takes control of accepting the offering. Once it's in, it's just a press of a intangible button on the holographic screen to get the mystery machine humming softly. ]
HNMR.
[ He taps an aspect on the screen and it fills with numerous windows of graphs showing seemingly rocky peaks, and at the bottom of each of those graphs is a chemical structure. A tap of two fingers (a right click apparently), switching the mode, and it turns to single, uniform peaks with the same molecular drawings. ]
CNMR.
[ Hide. Test, MS, Run. This time, the object of Sherlock's curiosity seems to hiss softly. ]
Mass Spec.
[ Single lines across the graphs on the window, labeled again with numbers and their computer-predicted molecular structure.
Hide. Application. Microscope. SEM. Run.
And then, suddenly, in black and white, the very epithelial cells on the slide are clear, rounded out in black and white. There's a bar on the screen not unlike a volume adjustment on a more modern computer, and sliding it up blurs the observation screen as it magnifies rapidly. The pixels smooth out, showing the aforementioned cells to be more like a stretched canvas this time.
But then, on them... tiny, mechanical spiders skittering across the walls, weaving and working like a hive. ]
Electron scanning microscope. Those are nanites. All of us are absolutely full of them now. They're what's making that tattoo on your arm.
action; 1/2
The moment the screen activates he's positively enraptured, a sharp breath coming in through his nose at the sight of it. He says not a word as the slide is eased into the slot and begins what is likely the closest thing Sherlock has ever had to a religious experience. Even he has only worked with an SEM once or twice, and to have one microscope with such vast capacity that's even portable? Completely unheard of and absolutely brilliant. His eyes follow each move of John's hands, locate every menu, take in each adjustment made to be committed to memory.
Oh yes. He will be having one of these, thanks.
The nanites, though. That really draws him in, enough so that he leans forward and brushes John's hand aside to take control himself. A small collection of the microscopic machinations is selected and zoomed to watch as they work together against the edge of a cell junction, his brow furrowed with the weight of his concentration. Amazing. He watches them work in reverent silence for a moment or two before straightening up and absent-mindedly tracing his fingers across the inside of his forearm. Oh, the samples he would be taking. This was at least a week's worth of entertainment just from analyzing his own tissue, particularly if he could get comparison samples from his counterparts.
All right, then. Maybe this whole spaceship idea isn't so bad, after all. ]
action; 2/2
Interesting enough, I suppose.
[ His tone remains bland despite the fact that he was bordering on salivation mere seconds before. ]
Is there a second unit in the Science Department?
no subject
Even if it's not the show of gawking that the machine got, when John catches the glance, his eyes drop. But then, there is a minor shift in his shoulders, his arms moving to fold behind his back and his posture straightening up a bit more for it. The tug at the corners of his lips could be the brother of chuffed to bits.
This is what happens when you throw a man into the deep end of a society connected through a network and a high-tech device. Just tell a doctor he's one of two to seven responsible for hundreds of people, let him come to the conclusion that it's sink or swim for catching up, give him ten months with the new equipment, and there you have it. John's a survivor, that's all.
Interesting enough, he says. We'll see. ]
Mm. Yeah, I should think they'd have a few, at least.
[ John reaches to eject the slide, then turn the device off so that it can be gathered into his arms and walked back to the place it belongs. ]
no subject
There's a great deal to understand here, and mysteries to solve. For that, he'll be needing equipment. Lots of it. Is that so hard to understand?
With a final sigh and a lifting of his chin he peers at the door, then back to the man now systematically dismantling all his hard work. ]
They won't miss one or two, then. Come on, we've got quite a bit to carry back over here.
[ Can't very well bring it all alone, after all -- and anyway, this is John's idea, so he'll be the one to assist in carrying it out. That's what he gets for being stingy. ]
no subject
You don't seriously think I'm going to go and steal from the science department, do you? Not telling on you for doing it and actually participating it are two different things. Even if I didn't object to stealing from my colleagues, which I do, I'm busy, Sherlock. I'm on shift.
[ Just gathering up those materials, yes. It should only take him an hour or so to put them all back where they belong. ]
[3/3] SCIENCE NOTES NO1CURR
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMR) - All your really need to know about this is that it employs MAGNETS YAY. It sends a signal to the nucleus of the atom it's looking for (Hydrogen or C-13 in this case) and it echoes back. The electrons surrounding that atom (shielding) bounce the signal back. HNMR graph reports the position of all H's on a molecule and CNMR measures the amount of C-13, Carbon's isotope (C-12 is unreadable).
The common machine looks like this. Of course, the bigger they are, the better the machine is in this case. HNMR graph. CNMR graph (this is ethanol - C2H5OH).
Mass Spectrometer - The machine basically shoots radiation into the sample and that makes the compound cycle a charge around itself (atoms like to bond in such a way they become neutral molecules). The machine sucks the particles through itself in what's basically an obstacle course (well, there are a bunch of stations where they've got things shot at them and plates to catch them, etc) and detects what it gets at the end. These are fragments of the original molecule, and the detector weighs them! And records what it's got. There's a bunch of different ways these machines can work, but basically, there are exact weights for each element. If you have a really accurate device (.0001) then you can tell what a molecule has in it just by inspecting the mass peak. If not, lol, there are other techniques to accomplish this that I'm not about to begin to explain.
Greal illustration for one type of NMR machine. Typical good machine. Example graph.
Electron Scanning Microscope (SEM) - Electron scanning microscopes generally employ the use of an 'electron gun', . It can achieve resolution better than one nanometer (for reference, a human blood cell is approx. 8k nanometers (nm) diameter, and the E.coli shown is about 1.5knm average). There are many different types, but the resulting picture is usually the same. The best has a magnification range of 10x - 500,000x. A picture of the purported very best SEM is here, for size reference.
This picture shows clusters of pathogenic E. coli bacteria on epithelial cells. Substitute E. coli with nanites. My personal brain image of them has more legs, but essentially this.
This Machine: Was me taking the small description and flying by the seat of my pants, trying to come up with something worthy to be in a futuristic medical lab. I assume the 'hunk of metal' is about as big as your average coffee-maker, but completely enclosed save for a small slat of a door in the side. So perhaps a tall centrifuge?
In respect to its NMR capability, I assume it is as good as our current best. The advancement is in the at-the-ready analytic component. There are programs now that can read NMR graphs and produce a chemical structure, but they tend to be something you have to manually tell the computer to do. This machine calculates what it is at the same time that it's collecting the data, and the result is the molecule's structure printed on the graph of it. Current NMR also has a problem with processing some solids (things that won't dissolve and others), but I assume this technology has overcome that in this time. I assume the test peak to judge chemical shifts is a very low frequency and does not destroy or taint the compound too greatly.
In respect to Mass Spec, the machine may do both positive (+) and negative (-) modes of reading the radicals, though John only used one mode to show off. Again, this test has the ability to calculate the molecular formula as it collects data for the graph. USUALLY a common MS graph is a single graph of peaks (several separate molecules may be included on the graph as opposed to just one). As an extra feature for the advancement of this technology, however, I think the computer/apparatus is smart enough to separate individual molecules, possibly by concentration levels of atoms. I also assume the sample, however small is not destroyed by this test, something quite possible to do today.
Regarding SEM, the test usually requires the sample to have at least a thin layer of metal coating to bounce off of (metals aren't greedy about holding onto the electrons they have/receive). This still happens, with an internal pump/vacuum containing the metal used, and this is why John performed this test last. I assume this device can also act as a regular light microscope, but the stains have to be previously stained.
Limitations include the small insertion slat. None of the tests themselves need a large sample at all to work, so the insertion slat (which works like a cd rom slat, accepting and pulling the slide into itself) is very thin. The sample on it should be exposed (no glass square over it) and should be no more than a quarter inch off the slide. Due to the nature of the tests, and to prevent contamination, the system is as enclosed as possible. Dismantling the system must be commanded through its computer system (like an 'eject' feature) or no deal. The machine is quite durable.
For samples that are bigger, I'm sure there is a bigger, smarter, BETTER machine that will run these tests and more somewhere else in the medbay. So this machine is technically an outdated/grandpa system. It's like comparing the first Gameboy to a Gameboy SP. However! It is still a very respectable, not to mention highly transportable, machine.
It could use a name, I suppose, for referring to it in-character, but this is where my creativity fails. Personally, I call it the BCWD - BioChemist's Wet Dream. John probably calls it Sheryl or something because he has no friends to spend time with as much as her (it). But that's not very professional. ]]
no subject