#ThrowbackThursday #virology
The oldest piece of equipment in my lab, a >55 year old refractometer that I inherited from the lab next door when they retired in 2010. It consists of a light source and prisms and measures the concentration of dissolved substances by their ability to bend light through the prism. In virology, we use gradients of sucrose spun at high speeds to purify viruses which will settle at distinct sucrose densities as measured on the refractrometer. It still works.