Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!purdue!ames!lll-winken!uunet!nih-csl!jim
From: jim@nih-csl.UUCP (jim sullivan)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Microwave Autoclave
Message-ID: <1006@nih-csl.UUCP>
Date: 1 May 89 23:54:08 GMT
References: <2220@uswat.UUCP> <8YKor8y00WB_85PypV@andrew.cmu.edu>
Reply-To: jim@nih-csl.UUCP (jim sullivan)
Organization: NIH-CSL, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 21

In article <8YKor8y00WB_85PypV@andrew.cmu.edu> rg20+@andrew.cmu.edu (Rick Francis Golembiewski) writes:
>
> >I'm talking about blasting the little peckers in to
> s>pace by high wattage (+1000) and thorough coverage (i.e. 
> gl>assware in motion on 3D gimbel).  Will it work ? How do test
> for> sterilization completeness ? 
> It might work (after all there certainly is enough energy to fry
> anything living on the glass), as for testing that's easy, take your sterilized
> glass and put it in a sterile incubator and let it incubate for a


	You have forgotten the nastiest buggers of all... viruses.
	They carry little if any water in them and so would probably
	live through a 2000 watt storm of microwaves.  Whether their
	DNA/RNA would be immune from the radiation itself is questionable.
	The reason I'll bet it hasn't been done is that as soon as 
	someone states in a PAPER that they used microwaves to sterilize
	their glassware, no one will take the paper seriously.

					Jim Sullivan
					jim@nih-csl.dcrt.nih.gov