Yesterday we were in the lab from 10am to 8pm. We wanted to get through all the wet chemistry so we trudged all the way through (only taking one break for lunch and to feed the meter a few times in the parking lot).
The actual goal of the day was to take the samples from the vials and wash them vigorously to prep them to drip through columns the next day (today). This was done in a multi-step procedure...
|
This was all going according to plan until one of the last samples that I pipetted into the wrong container. This meant we lost two of the 31 samples because there is no recovering that once you contaminate the containers. It was frustrating, but we moved on and finished up. It was a good reality check, but I wasn't going let it ruin the day. After we got the containers on the hot plates (to evaporate all the liquid in the containers), we left the lab feeling pretty ragged. So Juliana, Riley, and I grabbed a late dinner at Mad Mex (a local place with tasty tacos), went back to the hotel, and all of us slept very well last night. |
Even though it was a very long day, it set up for today to be a lot less arduous and now all of us know how it feels to spend an entire day working in a chemistry lab! Plus, it wasn't all work, no play... we jammed out to 80's music to keep the energy high!