This morning I had a meeting with the staff that were about moving our analytical equipment (mass spectrometer and optical emission based on plasma heating) from our old laboratories to the new ones, about 1km away. Following this I had to help the technicians doing analysis of radioactive caesium in urine. This is again something we do as a commercial service to a company. We have a technique were we isolate the radioactive caesium using inorganic ion exchangers (actually a cupper-potassium hexacyanoferrat). It works well in acidic and neutral pH conditions but not in alkaline conditions. The urine sample the technician was working with was aged (1 month in the refrigerator) and with time urine becomes more alkaline. I was happy that I could help her by just adding some nitric acid to the sample. Following this I spent about 2h in front of my PC, answering mails and taking the telephone when ringing. Sometimes I refuse answering and I have to skip the e-mail work.  I can see colleagues spending the major part of their days in front of their computers, mainly doing correspondence. It is often hard to find time for the real scientific stuff but if you are not ‘allowed’ there must be time for science anyway. Playtime! So what are my interests? Since I have spent so much time in the borderland between instrumentation, chemistry, geochemistry and physics I love to design methods for analyzing difficult radioisotopes at very low levels. This may sound academic and often it is! However, the analytical tools are the foundation for much of our knowledge. Knowledge or hypothesis about the processes drives the need for new or improved analytical techniques and new analytical techniques invented by chance or just for fun improve our knowledge of processes.  Which was first, the chicken or the egg?

Oups! Machine problems with the ICP-MS instrument, I need to run!