lots of hours going nowhere
Mar. 29th, 2010 04:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kareinaToday I finally had time on the microprobe again--first time in weeks. As a result I had two different experiments to analyze, two capsules each. The other experiments I've done have sometimes had a bad run where one of the two capsules didn't grow minerals large enough to analyze, but the other did. This time all four failed to grow decent minerals. Sigh. One of the capsules was broken open when I took it out. Given that it doesn't have decent sized minerals I'm guessing that it must have broken early in the run and lost all of its water (which really helps the mineral-growing reactions). No idea why the others didn't work. So instead of wasting time trying to analyze things which aren't there my boss suggested that we go back to another of the old experiments from years before I started this job. Looking at the list of what they found back in the day he suggested that I analyze B16, and we found one in the drawer of "B" experiments with a faded "16" written upon it. Put it into the probe, told it to create element maps and went to lunch. When we returned and looked at the compositions of what is present we realized that we couldn't have the B16 that we meant to have, so my boss looked again, and found another one with a faded "16A" written on it. This one appears to be a better match to what they claimed all those years ago was here.
Today's news is discouraging because I've got only two weeks till I do a talk at a confrence, and I still don't have enough data to answer the question we are trying to answer. Each experiment takes 200 to 400 hours to run (longer is better), and we don't know till it is done and we open it up and look if it worked or not.
In other news I've started a project I've been thinking I should start for ages. I'm creating a cloth spice cabinet which will hang on the outside of the kitchen cupboard--one pocket per spice jar. This will free up some much needed shelf-space in my pantry. Previously I've made wooden cabinets for my jars of spices, but this apartment is so very small there is literally no place I could put such a thing. A cloth one, I hope, will be light enough to hang from the cupboard door without damaging the hinges.
Today's news is discouraging because I've got only two weeks till I do a talk at a confrence, and I still don't have enough data to answer the question we are trying to answer. Each experiment takes 200 to 400 hours to run (longer is better), and we don't know till it is done and we open it up and look if it worked or not.
In other news I've started a project I've been thinking I should start for ages. I'm creating a cloth spice cabinet which will hang on the outside of the kitchen cupboard--one pocket per spice jar. This will free up some much needed shelf-space in my pantry. Previously I've made wooden cabinets for my jars of spices, but this apartment is so very small there is literally no place I could put such a thing. A cloth one, I hope, will be light enough to hang from the cupboard door without damaging the hinges.
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Date: 2010-03-31 10:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-04-01 07:36 am (UTC)