To find the -80C freezers, go into the first door on your right as you enter laboratory 4 25. They are on the left side of the room and on the right of the 30C shaker. T'rehey where you'll get frozen yeast strains, and where you'll put new strains you've made and frozen. There's a sticker on the front which explains some of what's in each rack, and the racks and boxes are labeled.
If you need to locate a particular strain, a good place to start is from the lab yeast freezer collection excel files, which are available from the lab ftp server, and can be opened with Microsoft Office or the free and open source donloadable alternative, LibreOffice. For Mark (and Marc Ting)'s worm, bacterial, and yeast strains, there are live copies of their inventories in the "Mark Lab Stuff" dropbox.
When using the -80 chest freezers, keep in mind that the racks, boxes and tubes are VERY cold and can frostbite or injure your fingers if you're not careful. There are big blue oven mitt looking gloves on the right hand surface of the freezer, or one or two pairs of latex gloves can keep things from sticking to your skin by freezing.
If the freezer warms up because it has been left open it will start to beep. If you know it's just because you opened it and there are no other problems, press the BUZZER button on the front to get it to stop beeping. If it's warmer than it should be and you aren't sure why, let someone know; there is a phone list on the front if no one is around! HOW TO CHANGE THE BACKUP BATTERY IN THESE FREEZERS: The battery is a 5HR-AAC battery, just go to http://www.interstatebatteries.com and search "5hR-AAC" they're about $27 as opposed to $150 if you buy them from the freezer company. Turn off the power and the battery power with the two switches on the lower left side, unscrew the two consecutive 5-screw panels on the lower left of the freezer, and in the bottom right of the compartment you've uncovered is a little two-screw bracket that holds the battery. After you've replaced it turn both powers back on and reset the battery monitor on the freezer by doing: 1. Press ^^ key over 5 seconds to show 'F00' in the display. 2. Change to 'F06' and press SET key. 3. Input '409' and press SET key to complete the procedure. 4. Ensure the battery warning light is now off.
A pdf of our freezer's manufacturer's manual can be downloaded here .
