Today for my thesis I went and worked on my samples and looked at them with a scanning electron microscope. It is a fun tool to use. I magnifies things up to 300,000 times. WOW! Anyway, it is pretty awesome. Also after you look at a bunch of dirt samples, you basically have seen the interesting things and are having to do the same thing to all the samples.
One cool thing about this process is that you coat the sample with gold. Don't worry, it is about 2 atoms thick. So not much there, and almost invisible. It is fun to learn how to use all these different machines. I have used some machines that cost more than an average house, most of the time the price tag on the instrument is enough to compare to a new Mercedes (around 50K or so i guess). And they let me use these things. Fun times!
One cool thing about this process is that you coat the sample with gold. Don't worry, it is about 2 atoms thick. So not much there, and almost invisible. It is fun to learn how to use all these different machines. I have used some machines that cost more than an average house, most of the time the price tag on the instrument is enough to compare to a new Mercedes (around 50K or so i guess). And they let me use these things. Fun times!
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