Workin' in the lab

DoctorIt

We (well, mainly I) did a big reorganization in our lab this past week, so I thought I'd take a photo to commemorate the event. That, and now that it's a sure thing that I'm leaving after next semeser, I've suddenly started to become sentimental... oh, I haven't photographed the oscilloscope yet... and the micro-balance and argon-ion laser! :lol3

Doc = nerd, big time.

So anyway, to get the photos, I hung one of the undergrads from the rafters and had him take a few shots... No, of course not - his hand would have been too shaky! I made use of our 8' tripod and put in on top of the prep bench in the "empty" corner of the lab. Made for a nice perspective. The idea was to capture me moving around and working.



It would have been better if I was less "ghost" like, but in order to have a longer exposure than I already did (6 seconds), I would have needed an ND filter. I already only had half the lab lights on.

Enjoy - also a good glimpse into what lab life is like at UMass for me. I'm sure those of you who have heard me talk about research may have imagined a grandiose white-coated sterile lab straight out of CSI. Not quite, eh?

DoctorIt

Oh, and the "me" on the right in the photograph above is doing this (daily photo followers will already recognize this shot I took a few days ago):



This could be fun: anyone want to hazard any guesses?

Shane422

Sorry I haven't seen any posts about your work. So I can't tell what kind of lab this is. Seems to be chemistry or physics judging by what I see and what I don't see. So my best guess for your photo is either a conductivity or other physical property test of the liquid.

I happen to be a Molecular Biologist (DNA splicer). I don't wear my lab coat either, its just a bit too Hollywood. But you could pick out a DNA lab by the presence of centrifuges, water baths, and incubators full of e.coli.In my lab, your picture looks very similar to a Nanodrop device, which measures DNA concentration in a 1uL sample.

DoctorIt

Not bad, Shane. Indeed it's a physical test of the fluid. Not conductivity though, much more elegant.

And close, mechanical engineering, but you could say I dabble in condensed-matter physics, and polymer chemistry too.

Phyxius

Surface tension?

Frog Lady

Doesn't look any thing like any of the labs I've ever worked in either - mine are more like Shane's - but w/ the odd frog hopping around:D

So you're leaving after next semester. Does that mean you're about to earn your "DoctorIt" title? Congrats!

C.

PS - I like the ghosting effect, pretty cool.

Skippy

DoctorIt wrote:

We (well, mainly I) did a big reorganization in our lab this past week, so I thought I'd take a photo to commemorate the event. That, and now that it's a sure thing that I'm leaving after next semeser, I've suddenly started to become sentimental... oh, I haven't photographed the oscilloscope yet... and the micro-balance and argon-ion laser!
Doc = nerd, big time.
So anyway, to get the photos, I hung one of the undergrads from the rafters and had him take a few shots... No, of course not - his hand would have been too shaky! I made use of our 8' tripod and put in on top of the prep bench in the "empty" corner of the lab. Made for a nice perspective. The idea was to capture me moving around and working.
It would have been better if I was less "ghost" like, but in order to have a longer exposure than I already did (6 seconds), I would have needed an ND filter. I already only had half the lab lights on.
Enjoy - also a good glimpse into what lab life is like at UMass for me. I'm sure those of you who have heard me talk about research may have imagined a grandiose white-coated sterile lab straight out of CSI. Not quite, eh?

Ohhhhhhh so this is where you get to play all day Doc
So the monster you created in there, you allowed to take it home as a pet??

Nice little Lab you go there Doc ...... ours is full of women the guys are wayyyyyyyy out numbered, ahhhh but they love it

You did well with your shot, I like the ghosting it looks like you ran from one side to the other to check on an instrument.

Thanks for sharing Doc........ Skippy

DoctorIt

Phyxius wrote:

Surface tension?

Nope, cooler.

I'll give you a hint, I work with complex, Non-Newtonian fluids. They're also called viscoelastic - which means they have both viscous (like a fluid) and elastic (like a solid) properties...

gus

DoctorIt wrote:

Nope, cooler.

I'll give you a hint, I work with complex, Non-Newtonian fluids. They're also called viscoelastic - which means they have both viscous (like a fluid) and elastic (like a solid) properties...

Shear

DoctorIt

gus wrote:

Shear

Oh so close... same idea, different direction: extension

the fluid is between two plates (roughly 5mm in diameter) that I move apart very quickly (exponentially fast - gus, you'd get a kick out of the motor that does this, its the tall thing on the right of the first photo there). It's a linear DC motor, capable of moving up to 1g at 10m/s. Translation, its fast!

The bottom plate is attached to a load cell that measures the force. There's a laser micrometer that measures the specimen diameter as it necks down.


But that's not the elegant part - the red laser through the middle take some pretty neat measurements during the stretch. Anyone here know their optics or materials?

ziggy53

Erik,

What is the power dissipation rating for that Ar LASER?

ziggy53

Shane422

So you're saying this tool is measuring how far you can stretch the liquid? What are the applications of such knowledge. Sounds kind of like anti-wax technology.

ziggy53

Shane422 wrote:

So you're saying this tool is measuring how far you can stretch the liquid? What are the applications of such knowledge. Sounds kind of like anti-wax technology.

I'm guessing this goes beyond simple elastic metric measurements. I'll bet the LASER is used to detect molecular realignment during the negative tension.

I'd love to see that aparatus used in cornstarch suspension research.

ziggy53

Awais Yaqub

yeah i can see you working
loved the idea and photo
what about taking many photos then stitching in ps

ajgauthier

bad flashbacks of UMass

DoctorIt wrote:

We (well, mainly I) did a big reorganization in our lab this past week, so I thought I'd take a photo to commemorate the event. That, and now that it's a sure thing that I'm leaving after next semeser, I've suddenly started to become sentimental... oh, I haven't photographed the oscilloscope yet... and the micro-balance and argon-ion laser!

Doc = nerd, big time.

Enjoy - also a good glimpse into what lab life is like at UMass for me. I'm sure those of you who have heard me talk about research may have imagined a grandiose white-coated sterile lab straight out of CSI. Not quite, eh?

good God...reading this and thinking about UMass and the Physics Dept. just gave me uber-bad flashbacks of crying over wave functions in frustration in Bill Gerace's office (I was an astronomy major).

Hope you're going some place less cold...not once, but twice I had to spend the night in my office (I was a TA) in the tower b/c I wasn't paying attention to the weather (no windows) and how much snow was falling...not possible to drive back to Belchertown. Also glad I no longer have to worry about accidently breathing in through your nose when you walk out in minus-something wind chill weather.

Do I miss Amherst? Only the popover insanity at Judies.

Adrienne

btw - nice lab shot with you floating at the different stations...

DoctorIt

Awais Yaqub wrote:

yeah i can see you working
loved the idea and photo
what about taking many photos then stitching in ps

Thanks Awais - yeah, I was chatting with Andy and he gave me some ideas. Look for a reshoot this week.

DoctorIt

ziggy53 wrote:

I'm guessing this goes beyond simple elastic metric measurements. I'll bet the LASER is used to detect molecular realignment during the negative tension.

I'd love to see that aparatus used in cornstarch suspension research.

ziggy53

Booo - Ziggy! You can't do optical measurements in an opaque or turbid cornstarch solution! However, you are right on. The laser is used to perform flow-induced birefringence measurements. What the heck are those? Well, the short-short version: polymers or other long complex fluid molecules have a different index of refraction based on whether you are looking at them in profile or down their length, make sense? Based on this, you can essentially measure the deformation and orientation of such molecules while they are being deformed in some flow, in this case, uniaxial extension. Simple shear is another one.

even without the laser FIB system, however, we use the stretching rig (with micrometer and load cell) to determine extensional viscosities and moduli - which are indicative of many properties, and a good addition to the standard shear properties, which are easier to test for.

Thanks for playing along, nerding out is fun.

schmoo

Yay closet nerds! I am of a different flavor (biology) so don't get much of the physics stuff but it's nice to hear geeking of any type.

Thanks for the physics lesson!