Week One

Well... it seems some bets may have paid off this week. No, I've not blown anything up, but if you laid your money on the "Breaking something costing over $25", well played. The work I've been doing is part of a larger program that is studying chemical reactions on the surfaces of dust in the atmosphere, and how that dust reacts with water in humidity and sunlight. We're using a lamp that is generating intense light that is filtered through a lens on top of the cell we have our sample in. So the days last week were: measure sample, put in cell, place filter on cell, place cell under lamp, irradiate, take cell out from lamp, take filter lens off cell, remove sample, rinse cell, bump filter off table and watch in horror-slow-motion the effects of gravity, shatter filter on... holy shit!! holy shit!! holy shit!! holy shit!! I left a message for my grad student supervisor and left the lab looking like this

::insert soundtrack here::













I was pretty miserable the rest of that Thursday. The grad didn't get the message and when I related the tragedy the next morning, her reply was, "We have another 300 nanometer filter, it's okay they have them in the stock room. They cost about $40, it's nothing major... the 310 nanometer we have on special order from China, that's a $500 filter. Don't break that one."

That's why I HAD to break this one... yeah, I had to. So that I wouldn't break the expensive one. Fact is, I dodged a bullet and I'm a humble and slower, steadier puppy in the lab now. Oh, just to let you know who I dealing with in this lab, this was taped up on the door of the lab. Yeah, I'm gonna be alright around these kids.