Science is slowly going... but at least it's going!
Yesterday, I began training in the NMR facility. I have 20 free hours with which I'll be measuring the relaxation time of 1H and 13C and 31P in my nanosamples to determine if I can do 2D exchange experiments on any of those nuclei to look at diffusion through my spheres!
Today, I'm moving over a microscope and a 632nm laser to finally "upgrade" my (as my advisor calls it) KMart Raman. (We're not talking the cheap noodle kind either. I'm talking about measuring optical phonon modes!) My Raman was pieced together from an ancient diode array that I miraculously got to work, an old spectrometer, optics taped onto makeshift mounts, and a laser that came out of the garbage pile (and it only works ~50% of the time).
My SAXS simulations aren't going as well... I'm going to throw in a log-normal distribution into the code instead of a gaussian to see if I can tweak things a bit by asymmetrically spreading distributions!
I love science!
Yesterday, I began training in the NMR facility. I have 20 free hours with which I'll be measuring the relaxation time of 1H and 13C and 31P in my nanosamples to determine if I can do 2D exchange experiments on any of those nuclei to look at diffusion through my spheres!
Today, I'm moving over a microscope and a 632nm laser to finally "upgrade" my (as my advisor calls it) KMart Raman. (We're not talking the cheap noodle kind either. I'm talking about measuring optical phonon modes!) My Raman was pieced together from an ancient diode array that I miraculously got to work, an old spectrometer, optics taped onto makeshift mounts, and a laser that came out of the garbage pile (and it only works ~50% of the time).
My SAXS simulations aren't going as well... I'm going to throw in a log-normal distribution into the code instead of a gaussian to see if I can tweak things a bit by asymmetrically spreading distributions!
I love science!
VIEW 3 of 3 COMMENTS
bepps:
I thought that was a cool thought of you heating up your ramen with a 632nm laser. To heat up a cup of noodles at 632nm that would have to be a pretty beefy beam. It would be pretty impressive for sure. Probably make the noodles glow for some period of time after you shut the beam off. 
turnsoffpain:
your lab sounds a lot like mine: half the shit is taped together with duct-tape and chicken wire. insect screening makes a great inexpensive light diffusor/neutral density filter.