Funny Anecdote in Micro Class

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smartreader

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Our microbiology professor at McGill told us an interesting anecdote that almost made me hurl. Apparently, a few years ago, the med students at McGill were taken to the microbiology lab to look at specimens swabbed from their own throats. A group of students huddled over a microscope were having difficulty interpretting the slide swabbed from one of their colleague's mouth. They called the professor over to help them out. The prof took one look and grabbed the student (who had volunteered to have is sample examined) and took him to another room to save him the embarrassment of being told in front of everyone else that the slide was contaminated with sperm!!!!
 
smartreader said:
Our microbiology professor at McGill told us an interesting anecdote that almost made me hurl. Apparently, a few years ago, the med students at McGill were taken to the microbiology lab to look at specimens swabbed from their own throats. A group of students huddled over a microscope were having difficulty interpretting the slide swabbed from one of their colleague's mouth. They called the professor over to help them out. The prof took one look and grabbed the student (who had volunteered to have is sample examined) and took him to another room to save him the embarrassment of being told in front of everyone else that the slide was contaminated with sperm!!!!

Dude we've all heard that joke before. Not to mention sperm are hard to see on low power, and anyone would immediately recognize one on high power.
 
Alexander Pink said:
Dude we've all heard that joke before. Not to mention sperm are hard to see on low power, and anyone would immediately recognize one on high power.

Agreed that we've all heard it. But sperm can't be that hard to see on low power. I've seen them through a $29 plastic microscope that came in an ovulation detection kit that my wife bought (used to detect "ferning" in the saliva, but after that we of course repurposed it to see if my swimmers were good). I don't recall what the magnification on the microscope was.
 
smartreader said:
Our microbiology professor at McGill told us an interesting anecdote that almost made me hurl. Apparently, a few years ago, the med students at McGill were taken to the microbiology lab to look at specimens swabbed from their own throats. A group of students huddled over a microscope were having difficulty interpretting the slide swabbed from one of their colleague's mouth. They called the professor over to help them out. The prof took one look and grabbed the student (who had volunteered to have is sample examined) and took him to another room to save him the embarrassment of being told in front of everyone else that the slide was contaminated with sperm!!!!

You ever see the movie I think it's called Intern Academy, about Canadian Residents, same exact thing. You should rent it from Blockbuster it's quite funny.
 
clicky said:
Agreed that we've all heard it. But sperm can't be that hard to see on low power. I've seen them through a $29 plastic microscope that came in an ovulation detection kit that my wife bought (used to detect "ferning" in the saliva, but after that we of course repurposed it to see if my swimmers were good). I don't recall what the magnification on the microscope was.

You can see sperm at 400x magnification, so yes cheaper microscopes often have this power. I mean't that at lower than this you wouldn't see one, and you would recognize them upon seeing them as they look quite distinct.
 
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