Real Dirt and Magnetic Particles

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Don't forget that the magnetic bits are also REALLY bad for Speakers. Most of my engines have picked up some sort of junk with their speakers, and my layout is hardly even ballasted, let alone exposed to anything outside the usually woodland scenics products.

Tetter's, what little I've used, I haven't worried about baking the sand and dirt All of the dirt I use is inorganic for the most part.

It doesn't matter, trust me on this one. All those critters live just the same in those conditions. Its worth it to try to keep it a little clean.

[Gary S]

Maybe there is a good reason to use alcohol as a wetting agent! Kills any critters hiding in the dirt?

I guess I should bake all the dirt I have collected, eh?

[faraway]

Maybe there is a good reason to use alcohol as a wetting agent! Kills any critters hiding in the dirt?

Or they call in all their buddy and have a wild orgy on your layout...

I guess I should bake all the dirt I have collected, eh?

Yes, that is generally recommended.

The magnetic particles are very small, like dust. It would be easier to pick them from motors etc. if they would have at least the size of ballast.
I am not sure if I would like to take the risk to have magnetic dust on my layout. You should be very sure to have a method to sort them out with an electric magnet.

[P5se Camelback]

Shake 'n' Bake ... better to be safe than to introduce tiny little critters into your comfy home environment. Think about it. Your Pest Treatment guy sprays nasty stuff around the perimeter of your home to defend against these same little critters from coming in from the cold. And now ... you've given a bunch of them a free ride over the "killing fields!"

Shake 'n' Bake! It's not just for dinner!

[Justinmiller171]

I would bake them before they get into your GERN plant, you never know what horrible mutations they could come out with.

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Maybe there is a good reason to use alcohol as a wetting agent! Kills any critters hiding in the dirt?

I guess I should bake all the dirt I have collected, eh?

Alcohol might get some of the stuff.

I actually boil things i want clean from nature. When i've taken "Natural" objects to be placed in pet cages and such, we always boil them. I'm sure baking would work though. i never thought to try it any differently.

Truthfully, you probably don't need to nuke the dirt, you just need to overcome the resistance of whatever spores are hiding out in the dirt. Fungi and other microbes may not be able to grow on that patch of dirt by the road, but they do survive as well protected spores that are difficult to kill, and can last a long time. You can't see them, and they are so small that they can go unnoticed even under a microscope, but they float around. in a dark, possibly damp area (like your basement), these organisms hatch from their spores and can cause you trouble.

If fungi takes hold in your layout, it will be to late to get rid of it. It forms microscopic filaments that often spread MUCH farther than you can see (Ever see a small mold spot on bread? If you take a microscope, you can see the filaments spread far from the dark areas, that to the naked eye, look "clean". the dark areas are just the fruiting bodies. its not the rest of the organism). These spread the spores and are resistant themselves. You'd likely have to remove much of your scenery, even beyond where the obvious "growth" is. At this point, spores may already be in the air and spreading.

Not meant to be scary, its a small chance that it can happen, but it doesn't cost much to cook your dirt for 15 minutes or so to be safe, compare to the possible damage contamination can cause.

I really hate my Microbiology class! Meh, i'm still gonna play in the dirt!

[nachoman]

Keep in mind, most fungi and bad stuff don't require much to spread, but takes moisture in order to grow. Keep your layout room dry, and problems will be less likely. I've had mold grow on white glue and newsprint before, if it stays moist. I also had some moths raise in some lichen/natural weeds I used for trees, and the natural trees on my brother's club layout attracted a herd of mice grazers. I bake the dirt I collect from my yard, though. I think about 350-400 for an hour or so.

[tetters]

Hah... All this talk about critters makes me think about extremophiles. Those little microscopic organisms that survive, nay, thrive in the deep ocean under enormous pressure, in total darkness and huddle around volcanic vents in the ocean floor. Just recently they also found a life form on the Earth that survives on Arsenic! Crazy...ain't Life grand!

[Green_Elite_Cab]

Hah... All this talk about critters makes me think about extremophiles. Those little microscopic organisms that survive, nay, thrive in the deep ocean under enormous pressure, in total darkness and huddle around volcanic vents in the ocean floor. Just recently they also found a life form on the Earth that survives on Arsenic! Crazy...ain't Life grand!

those thermophiles make modern science possible. You know those hot springs in yellow stone? They actually form goey jelly-like clumps of bacteria in them. These creatures have enzymes and such that can survive at incredible temperatures.

It makes processes like PCR (polymerase Chain Reaction) efficient and realistic. Basically, PCR copies DNA, so if you needed alot of DNA, and you only have a small sample, you would use PCR to scale up your amount. This involves "unzippering" the DNA with heat, then adding more nucleotides (the building blocks of DNA), cooling it down, and then "zippering" them up again with an enzyme called DNA Polymerase. Then repeat the cycle. This causes 1 DNA strand to become 2, then 2 becomes 4, and so on exponentially.

The only problem is that DNA "unzippers" at somewhere around 90 degrees Celsius (190 degrees Fahrenheit)! This is so hot that most "normal" DNA Polymerase enzymes would have been permanently destroyed (Denatured), and you would need to add more polymerase every cycle. However, if we borrow DNA polymerase from thermophiles, it can survive that heat. We call it Taq polymerase, and it allows us to simply put our PCR machine in a programmed heating -cooling cycle that creates incredible amounts of DNA from a small sample in a very short time, very efficiently. Taq polymerase comes from "Thermus AQuaticus", originally discovered in Yellowstone in the 1960s.

This is how a single hair or trace DNA sample from a crime scene can be realistically analyzed. they simply put it through PCR, and what was once a small amount of evidence is now limitless.

but yeah, back to the discussion of trains!

[Gary S]

Very interesting stuff, GEC. I remember quite a bit from High School and college chemistry and biology classes, and now I know even more!

[tetters]

Very interesting stuff, GEC. I remember quite a bit from High School and college chemistry and biology classes, and now I know even more!

Indeed. Thanks GEC!