Instrument, not machine

It turns out public transportation can be an amazing thing if you can find a way to get to it! I have. My bike is my new best friend. What was last week a 45 minute walk is now a mere 10 minute ride. Not only is it short, but it seems to be a very social thing. Just today I met someone carrying a cup of coffee in one hand and I learned how you can get your caffeine fix while on a bike early in the morning. I foresee this being very useful for this summer!

Have I said the most amazing thing that happened . . . the 5890 Hewlett Packard Gas Chromatographer, GC, now seems to work! Jim Nurmi, my fabulous mentor, has fixed it. The GC is fairly important in my research. I am currently looking at the degradation of trichloroethylene, TCE, from different types of iron. I can quantitatively examine this through essentially measuring the concentration of TCE over time. To do this a GC is used. Apparently this type of instrument is a little fickle, but when it works it works. With that said, I’m off to use the working GC!

Happy chemistry.