ICP-MS

So this week I am trying to learn how to use a new scientific testing machine.  Thing.  It is called an Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometer.  What does this thing do?  Well it turn a noble gas into a flow of liquid plasma that heats at above 10,000 Fahrenheit and tells you what elements are in your sample down to 1 part per trillion.  This is very finite. 

This would mean that if you had a million ton sample of dirt it could tell you accurately how many grams of arsenic, or selenium, or whatever elements you would like to see are in it.  This does of course assume that you have a homogeneous sample.  Needless to say it is a complicated process that is interesting and confusing.

This other thing that I dealt with today is that when you do this process, you have to was everything quite extensively.  So that you don't have a fingerprint of some teeny tiny bit of something mess up your results.  So I was washing and rewashing things today for several hours.  Now they are soaking in acid to get anything that might have tried to stay on the jars and bottles. 

The process is interesting and I am excited about it and best of all it will help me get done very soon! I hope.  I guess we will see what happens!  I think it should work out, in the proper time frame is the question...