This is the second post in the “It’s Pronounced Fronkensteen!” series. This series of posts will follow our trials, travails, successes, and lack of successes in the lab.
Continuing our prowess for all things laboratory-related, we got humbled a bit. James Cook University (referred to here as the Uni, or JCU) has an impressive array of laboratory equipment. This isn’t stuff you could find at a mom and pop university. We were going to be inducted into the Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) in one of the buildings, and as a part of our induction, we would be given a walk through of the other equipment also in the same hallway.
Interestingly enough, within the building is the ongoing construction of a clean room. Clean rooms allow far advanced lab techniques, and anywhere with a clean room is a step above the rest. There are actually few things that JCU does not have that they did have back at Lamont. One item missing is the SelFrag, which was something that the two of us got quite well acquainted with the past two summers. (For the lay people out there, the SelFrag is a machine that is able to break/smash rocks apart along the mineral boundaries via pulses of lightning – actual freakin’ lightning.)
Anywho, we were inducted to all of the fancy schmancy equipment that is found in this building. It is phenomenally impressive. If we had to be instructed on how to use all of these things, our brains just might explode. And that would be a serious setback to the construction of the clean room. One must assume that brain matter on the walls would make something ‘unclean.’ The machines ranged from the enormous metal box thing to the enormous radioactive metal box thing to things that cost more money than our salaries combined for the next ten years. It was something else. And then, the moment came when we would be shown how to use the machine that we came for today: the Scanning Electron Microscope. Here, his name is just Jeol.
At this point, it is also pertinent to point out that it was not just the two of us being inducted. We were also with Levi, an honors student studying at the university. In actuality, the major reason why we were being inducted at all is because Levi needed to use the machine on his samples of zircon, and we were just along for the ride.
Close observers may have noted that Jeff worked with zircon in both of the past two summers, so it’s a mineral that he knows all too well. Zircon has radioactive uranium in it and, without getting too far down the rabbit hole, can be used to figure out how old stuff is. Before the zircons can be blasted with a laser to determine their age, specific sites must be selected on individual zircons. Taking photos with the SEM will allow Levi to find the sites he wants to sample from. (I know that sentence ends with a preposition, which is grammatically erroneous, but it’s not grammatically wrong here in the southern hemisphere – true fact.)
It’s also anticipated that we might reach this point in our own projects down the road. But that’s down the road. As you can see, the three of us made quite the formidable team. (That’s the SEM in the background there. Science is glamorous.)
Levi took the lead, Tiffany was in charge of moving the field of view of the microscope, and Jeff handled the PC processing. We had it goin’ on. For hours. And hours. Of the same thing over and over again.
Levi is a great and incredibly smart guy and it was fun to work with him for the day. It’s almost assured that he will be making repeat appearances in forthcoming blogs, so be sure to keep an eye out for that.
I know what you’re thinking right now, though. But what about the SEM?? How does that work? I won’t be able to sleep tonight until I learn the secrets of how you take pictures of stuff using that microscope!! Well, you’re all in luck. We filmed a tutorial.
May Wuebber 2013 