DNA examining/testing equipment

i pulled a few pieces of what looks like somekind of dna reading or testing equpment out of a dumpster today along with some lawnmowers and other misc. items that first caught my eye.... the dna stuff consisted of mostly some big blocks of aluminum that seemed like huge heatsinks with somekind of board inside and a bunch of misc boards that looked like high grade boards with a lot of heat sinks and transformers. anyone ever delt with this kinda stuff before? anything hazardous? i will try to take pics tommorow.

Ummmm.....I would be cautious in that dumpster. Not only of hypo needles, but the po po as well. I would hate like hell to be scrapping and get stuck only to find out 3 months later I'm growing an arm out of my ars. 1. I'm assuming you have permission on this dumpster? 2. I admit I don't have any knowledge as to what the makeup of something like this has, but being an item of the scientific/medical field, I'm sure it has something worth value. I'll wait patiently in the background for one of the other upper echelon scrappers who've come across this to answer.

this dumpster had a little bit of everything in it, the one i brought home with me says alpha unit block assembly for dna engine systems

Originally Posted by injunjoe

"Yes we will have the results over to you soon as he finishes up the lawn!"

That's great!

and yes i had permission he said i could take anything i wanted

Its the same thing but just the base it has somekind of board in it with gold plated pins couldn't find exact item on ebay but a few similar tthings gonna put them up for 100 each and see if thers any interest not going to take them apart yet cus the warantee seal is still good

I agree with you not to tear into it at this point. If it's something you can hold onto, i'm pretty sure there's someone who's interested. Granted, i don't know them. :-)

I'm having a hard time finding info on them I'm assuming most people searching for specific dna systems on google already kmow what they are and the operation they perform

I can completely understand. I came across 2 really old oxygen concentrators (which aren't legal to sell by unauthorized folks such as myself) so i tore into them . I know it's exhausting (believe me, i know way more about oxycons then i even wanted) but i would keep searching if i were you, even on ebay just for info. At worst, you will NOT lose money! I would almost guarantee there are valuable pieces inside.

pics if anyone is interested... and for scrap purposes nothing on this thing is magnetic
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...e=STRK:MESE:IT

Makes me a little nervous that somebody is actually bidding on and intending to buy used DNA testing hardware off Ebay.

You would think places that do DNA testing would want brand new certified working equipment to ensure that no errors occur during the test!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cycler

this is what you've got. Its basically an incubator for growing DNA segments and running molecular biology experiments. The part you listed on ebay is called the sample block.

Originally Posted by IronPirate

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_cycler.

From the wiki post> quote { Quality thermal cyclers often contain silver blocks to achieve fast temperature changes and uniform temperature throughout the block.}

Silver blocks ........ Blocks of solid SILVER! $$$$$$

There is a metalic looking square part in the center of the block I guess it could be silver any way to test wether its silver or aluminum doesn't appear to be stainless