This week in Chemistry pictures....

For starters, Happy 2010!

There will be a few changes around here that include:

1) Blogging.

...yep, that's about it. I'm not going to try to do a post-a-day but at least a couple a week, otherwise, what's the point?

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So I've had my iPhone for about 6 months now (maybe a little less) and feel that I do not utilize the camera as much as I should. I listen to my iPod occasionally in lab and decided that it really easy to just pull it out of my lab coat and take a picture every now and then, and behold! A new post is created: This week in Chemistry pictures.

Yeah, I know, it's really dorky, and kind of boring, but I like doing it, so there you go!

1) This is the rotovap cold finger. Its a really stupid thing to take a picture of. However, for the non-chemistry people [both of you] I wanted to let you down gently because unlike how they do it on Fringe [which premiered last night, btw] our cold finger is full of dry-ice, not a boiling bright blue solution.

2) One of my reactions on the rotovap. It was a cool color, so I took a picture. Can you see that I was a] bored and b] spent some time with the rotovap last week? When I did my summer research at UCONN a couple of years ago, one of the other guys there made up a song about rotovaps to the tune of 'Fat bottomed girls' by Queen. It was sweet.

3) My prep-plate. It turned out wonky. There are a few things that you wouldn't realize a chemist would use so much and aluminum foil is one of them. It is so versatile! Also, sharpies, cannot live without sharpies, show me a chemist who can/does. I don't believe it.

4) Did I mention my prep-plate didn't turn out? Yeah, it didn't which meant that I had to do a column. It was a mini-column though so it didn't take hours-upon-hours. Here is a picture when I'm beginning to TLC ,Thin Layer Chromatography, not Tender-Lovin'-Care, or the R&B group from the 90's. RIP 'Left-eye', don't even get me started on The Learning Channel, 18-kids-and counting? No thank-you.

5) ...and finally, my TLC plates running, see more aluminum foil...maybe I'm the only one obsessed with it though, hmmm...I should check into that.