• Question: What is the most complicated piece of equipment that you use and how did you learn how to operate it?

    Asked by Joseph and Kals to Hephzi, Imogen, Jen, Jennifer, Tom on 7 Mar 2015.
    • Photo: Hephzi Tagoe

      Hephzi Tagoe answered on 7 Mar 2015:

      Currently, I don’t use any fancy equipments that are complicated to use. In the past though, the most complicated piece of equipment I’ve used is an HPLC (High Performance Liquid Chromatography) machine.
      One of my colleagues trained me on how to use it, I had notes on how to set up, program and troubleshoot it and the rest came with practise over time. There was always something new to discover with it even with all the practise and always had a feeling of “Hurray!!!! I nailed it” when it worked.

    • Photo: Thomas Barrett

      Thomas Barrett answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      This is a great question. Take your pick!

      I use 3-5 different machines using things from lasers, furnaces, chemicals and plasma.

      I would say the most complex machine I have to use is the main one for my project. That is Nancy (or her proper name NanoSIMS 50L). She is a ~£2 million beast with literally thousands of working parts and is incredibly sensitive. So much so you can’t walk past it when you are running an analysis or your footsteps will affect the measurements!

      I learned how to use her very slowly and am still getting to grips with some of the finer points of my own technique. I could spend my entire career learning how to use this one machine!

    • Photo: Imogen Napper

      Imogen Napper answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      Great question!

      At the moment I am using two complicated pieces of equipment.

      I am doing FT-IR, which stands for Fourier Transform InfraRed.
      I can use the machine to identify different types of material by finding out their chemical structure.

      FTIR produces a infrared spectrum, which represents a fingerprint of a sample by looking at the vibrations between the bonds of the atoms making up the material.
      Because each different material is a unique combination of atoms, no two compounds produce the exact same infrared spectrum, which means I can identify them! For example, if I went to the beach and found some plastic litter, by doing this technique I could identify what type of plastic it is!
      The machine uses liquid nitrogen too! Liquid nitrogen is REALLY cold at -196°C. If you throw it on the floor it evaporates in seconds!

      I also use a scanning electron microscope. This microscope can see REALLY REALLY things. It works by scanning the sample with electrons.
      The electrons interact with atoms in the sample, producing various signals that can be detected and then produce an image of the sample! This piece of equipment can see things that we can’t see by eye, such as pollen or bacteria!

    • Photo: Jennifer Rudd

      Jennifer Rudd answered on 9 Mar 2015:

      A friend (colleague) of mine and I recently did some low temperature emission spectroscopy. Emission happens when we shine light into a molecule and it makes the molecule all excited, then it needs to release energy and so it emits (sends out) light. We can measure this with a fluorimeter. We did the measurements at 77K and so there was a lot of liquid nitrogen around. We had to be careful not to knock the sample when filling up the nitrogen container. I learnt to use it slowly with lots of supervision. Even though I have a lot of chemistry experience, and even a PhD, I sometimes still need lots of training to use new equipment.

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