Instrumentation

I don't like the lab anymore. It's cold down here, dark, and it smells funny.

I was troubleshooting method 525.2 problems when I came across this note on an online forum. We thought it was so true and hilarious that we wrote it down and stuck the note on our bosses' desk after work.

That's pretty much what a day in our lab felt like a lot of the time. 

A glorious place exists where Keurigs brew delicious cups of coffee and you don't have to smell rotten meat while you drink it.

Our lab is shaped like a long rectangle with the back half being the dirty lab portion...but the front half...oh, the front half.

The presentation and show happens in the front half. The bathrooms are nicer and the water is warm when you wash your hands.

Best of all ethyl acetate is nothing more than a hazy dream.

The visitor and big wig entrance is up front, so the parking spots are closer and level.

After a cold fall Midwest rain if you're lucky you park up front, and don't drown in potholes swimming to your car after work like the rest of us.
For 5 years I looked at the front half of the lab with envy.

I've been promoted and moved onto this magical land of work they call Instrumentation!

My lab is at the very front of the building now!

I specifically am running GC/MS instruments. I analytically test the samples I used to extract and prepare. Basically I get to see the final results of the water samples that come in.

BEST OF ALL I HAVE MY OWN DESK!

I've been working since before I could legally work and...

IVE NEVER HAD MY OWN DESK!

Toad Island

Toad Island is a beach on my favorite river that has become a tradition on our kayaking adventures.

It is my idea of heaven on Earth.

It's sandy and rocky with access to a perfect swimming spot.

In the spring and summer wildflowers bloom along the edges of riverbanks. The sands turn to rock and dirt leading into the shady canopy of woods.

Pollinators, amphibians, birds, and mammals alike forage these banks and enjoy it's waters.

 Once a year during early summer, if we're lucky, we come across frogs and toads of all shapes and sizes. Not only that, but Toad Island has hidden treasures of geode rocks if you look hard enough.

Toad Island with Toad Eggs

Toad eggs, unlike frog eggs, are found in long strands that are clear with black bead like eggs.

Check out the good vibrations this tiny toad is putting out.
Respect the Water and maybe you can catch some good vibrations too.

Here are some of my favorite photos on the Mackinaw River, along with some of the friends we found along the way.

Action shot of dragonfly and snake

Canoe Dogs

Goose nest

Softshell Tortoise

Luna like a cat in water

 

Drinking waters are contaminated with organic compounds from popular herbicides and pesticides. Our lab reports hits for herbicide analytes such as atrazine, simazine, and metolachlor often.

What do you suppose would be found in waste waters, farm creek run-off, and industrial rivers?

 
He says it so much better than me I'll leave these John Prine lyrics as a lasting note.
 Hopefully you can find a river to love and cherish as much as I do.

John Prine: Paradise
When I was a child my family would travel
Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born
And there's a backwards old town that's often remembered
So many times that my memories are worn.

And daddy won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County
Down by the Green River where Paradise lay
Well, I'm sorry my son, but you're too late in asking
Mister Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

Well, sometimes we'd travel right down the Green River
To the abandoned old prison down by Airdrie Hill
Where the air smelled like snakes and we'd shoot with our pistols
But empty pop bottles was all we would kill.

Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel
And they tortured the timber and stripped all the land
Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken
Then they wrote it all down as the progress of man.

When I die let my ashes float down the Green River
Let my soul roll on up to the Rochester dam
I'll be halfway to Heaven with Paradise waitin'
Just five miles away from wherever I am.

Let's BEE a Pollinator Haven

In honor of Pollinator Week I wrote another op-ed for the local paper...but you get to read it here first!



This week, June 19-25^th is Pollinator Week!  This year for Pollinator Week we should commit to stop the use of neonicotinoid pesticides and increase our pollinator habitat.  Illinois is in a unique position to help pollinators by restoring much needed native prairie land.  We should inspire others by becoming the first community in Illinois to pass resolutions declaring ourselves a safe haven for pollinators.

Pesticides are chemicals used to kill harmful animals or plants, and they include herbicides, insecticides, and fungicides.  Neonicotinoids are a class of insecticides that have a chemical structure similar to nicotine and act on the nervous system of insects.

Insecticides function in various ways.  Neonicotinoid insecticides can kill by disrupting the nervous system, acting as an endotoxin, damaging the exoskeleton, and causing infertility. While some insecticides claim to target certain species, most do not discriminate.

That means we’re not just killing pests, we’re killing all the beneficial species as well.  Hummingbirds, bats, small mammals, beetles, and moths are also important pollinators adversely affected by pesticides.  Birds and aquatic species in particular have shown high mortality rates in the presence of neonicotinoid pesticides. It is also important to remember insecticides are not killing off pests for good; they are only creating greater resistance of mosquitoes and other pests in the future.

We must stop buying these chemical products that are doing more harm than good, and we must hold officials accountable for spraying our communities.  I often see state workers spraying pesticides along the side and median areas of interstates.
 These are tankards of chemical toxins driving and spraying along the interstate.  And we need to be asking ourselves what for?! Why are we spraying unpopulated areas along interstates? Who is profiting from it? Why should we be poisoning the environment, wildlife, pollinators, and ourselves when instead we could be planting native prairie seeds?

How much of our tax money is spent on pesticides? 

When you read the material safety data sheets on even the least toxic chemical alternatives on the market, they state possible carcinogen.

We are wasting money on pesticides we apply to our yards, and we are allowing the state to use our money by killing off pollinators and the environment.

We should be asking questions such as what are these toxins being sprayed in my community?  Who is responsible for the use of pesticides in this area? What are they spraying for?  Are there safer alternatives?

 Is a trained professional applying these pesticides? What physical harm is being done to workers using pesticides?   What medical costs and injuries are associated with the use of pesticides by workers?

The good news is YOU can start helping pollinators now.  Pollinators can use all the help they can get, so start planting.  Even 1 plant on your porch or doorstep can provide food! If you have more room, you can grow a variety of plants that bloom throughout the year.  You can also help pollinators by providing access to uncontaminated water and installing bat and bee houses. Do your own research about chemicals. You can learn more at websites like Beyond Pesticides, Pesticide Action Network, and the Pollinator Partnership.

Beneficial pollinators are what make this world flourish with foods and flowers of every color.  What would the world be without monarchs, swallowtails, and honeybees? And what would be left to eat?

We should come together as a community and put {Insert City Here} on the map as a bee haven.  We need to stop poisoning the environment and let nature do as it was intended to, and the fruits of nature will unfold.

All the Beauty and Peace

When your coworker brings in a breakfast sandwich to split, and orders vegetarian for you, it's going to be a good day!

So buy somebody a sandwich. Be the better person and show kindness to someone you don't really want to. Pet an ugly animal. Spare that scary spider you were going to squish. 

Mostly take a moment to show love and change a beings mood or maybe their whole outlook in life.

The World could use all the beauty and peace we have to give.

Mounting Kit

The old 4 Ladies and a Beaker is all but fizzled out and dissolved like sodium bicarbonate.

Gone are the days my SPE partner would leave me notes like this.

Our lab finally has new management, and the crew has doubled in size.

We've taken on research and development projects of new E.P.A. methods. 

Drinking water regulations are ever expanding as new pesticides and herbicides are allowed on the market.

I think management learned a lesson from the last batch of catty women new hires and has hired all men. 

This picture of Gidget perfectly sums up the feeling in the lab with 3 unhappy women.

I'm certain that the tension wafted out of our room, and floated down the hallways as volatile as methylene chloride.

Not that I'll change the name, but our group now more appropriately could be called:

 4 Dudes and a Hot Plate...

Or

4 Dudes and a Buchner...

Buchners on top, Beakers on bottom

Or my personal favorite:

4 Dudes 2 Ladies and a Mounting Kit...

Extractions room has finally calmed down in the aftermath of an explosive year.

We've even expanded rooms to develop our drinking water methods. 

This room has a window! Like a cat, we take full advantage of the sun spots coming in. A lab worker has to get their vitamin D in somehow.