[I try to start my day writing 250 words on anything. I’ll post one every Tuesday until I run out of good ones.]
One skill I learned as an environmental chemist was atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). You dissolve samples in acid and then atomize them at high temperatures. Depending on how much light a sample’s electrons absorb at particular wavelengths, you can measure the concentrations of arsenic, lead, copper, etc. it contains.
Our AAS instruments were made by the Perkin-Elmer company, the fine engineers who also ground the myopic mirror of the Hubble Space Telescope. I once saw one of my instruments on a television program about restoring the Sistine Chapel, where it was used to determine what Michelangelo’s paints were made of. I saw one again on a program about science in Antarctica, where it was used to measure pollutants in air and ice.
“Hey, that’s a Perkin-Elmer 5000!”
I could have done either of those jobs.
I always had a fantasy of overwintering in Antarctica. I think I have the right temperament for it. When I saw that they had laboratory equipment I knew how to use, I realized I had the skills for it, too. Unfortunately, by then I also had a family with young children. Maybe in my next life.
If you want to impress an environmental chemist, tell them your name is in Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Wastewater, the industry bible for laboratory analyses. Mine is in the 18th edition because I helped develop a new method of sample preparation. I still proudly list it in my bibliography alongside my science writing and comics.
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