Tracking the metabolic fate of glycine
Behind these tubes, in the background, you can see three small "scintillation" tubes sitting in a heating block. The chloroform and methanol will interfere with the ability to detect the radioactivity given off by the carbon that has been incorporated into the cricket lipids. Fortunately, chloroform and methanol have much lower boiling points than lipids, so if a fat-chloroform-methanol solution is heated, the chloroform and methanol will evaporate, leaving behind only the lipid.
A "scintillation cocktail" will be added to the lipids before the radioactivity is measured in a scintillation counter. Basically, this cocktail contains chemicals that will react with the released particles and then fluoresce (release light), and this fluorescence is what the scintillation counter measures. Scintillating, right?
Tracking the metabolic fate of glycine
Behind these tubes, in the background, you can see three small "scintillation" tubes sitting in a heating block. The chloroform and methanol will interfere with the ability to detect the radioactivity given off by the carbon that has been incorporated into the cricket lipids. Fortunately, chloroform and methanol have much lower boiling points than lipids, so if a fat-chloroform-methanol solution is heated, the chloroform and methanol will evaporate, leaving behind only the lipid.
A "scintillation cocktail" will be added to the lipids before the radioactivity is measured in a scintillation counter. Basically, this cocktail contains chemicals that will react with the released particles and then fluoresce (release light), and this fluorescence is what the scintillation counter measures. Scintillating, right?