I have had better days LOL.
Well, today wasn't all bad I guess.
Started off with some TEM staining using Uranyl Acetate and Lead Citrate to provide some contrast to the specimen grids I had microtomed a long time ago. The process was rather simple but since I hadn't actually done it in years, I had to ask someone for assistance in the matter, and it seemed to go ok. I had a slight mishap where one of the grids accidentally shifted into some NaOH pellets and thus ruined the grid due to the reaction between lead citrate and NaOH. Otherwise the whole process took about an hour to do.
I legged it back to engineering for my 11am meeting with Tim Lang of Lang Technologies. We had a discussion in regards to the progress of one of the students projects and about what direction Lang Technologies were hoping to have come from this work. It wasn't that new really since I had heard similar material from my previous meetings but it was good to just see the new developments that they were moving along with. We also decided on visiting their head office in the CBD on Monday so that should be an interesting visit I think. After the meeting though, I walked Mr Lang out and had a brief discussion in regards to their desire to hire me. It would appear that I have been shortlisted along with a few other key people that they would like to employ as they are currently expanding and require more members of staff to ensure good operation of their work. In expanding on the job description, he described that it would involve understanding and learning about the new technologies and sciences involved in their projects, and ensuring that their work would be kept fresh and upfront, and allows for him to concentrate on other aspects instead of having to juggle these aspects as he is currently doing. Unfortunately their people are currently scattered around the place with people in China for business, someone on holiday and this that the other, meaning they haven't been able to sort things out fully. Originally their new CEO was to be at the meeting today, but he got pulled away to another more important meeting that morning by another senior member of their staff, and thus we would meet him on Monday hopefully when we visit their offices.
I then had my session on the CM12 TEM at the EMU in the afternoon. It wasn't the best session I've ever had on the TEM let me say... One of the staffers kindly ran me through the machine quickly as a refresher and everything seemed to go fairly well for the first two samples. Then on the third while adjusting the objective aperture to obtain better contrast, I lost it. When I say I lost it, I couldn't adjust the controls to bring it back into a position to view the specimen. It is an absolute bitch of a system, and there are no real quick and easy ways to get it back into center being an old hand-wound dial method of adjustment. It took quite a while, perhaps fifteen or so minutes for the staffer to re-locate it for me. Then on sample grid number four, I lost high tension. The TEM runs on 120kev, yes, that's right 120 000 volts. Thus, high tension, electrical tension. Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened, why it happened, how it happened, but I lost it. The vacuum system tripped the safety system and turned off the high tension. The staffer came and checked it out, couldn't figure out why, then asked the specialist in the EMU to look at it. They pondered and couldn't figure it out. Booted it back up to speed for me and put the specimen in, and it seemed to work ok. Unfortuantely due to my bad microtoming skills, the section on grid four was too thick to work with, so I had to change the sample to grid number five, and poof, lost high tension again. ~headdesks~ Once again called the EMU TEM specialist to come and look, and he discovered a longitudinal groove in the specimen holder o-ring, which wouldn't have normally caused a vacuum loss to trip the high tension, but it could have been some other random reasons..... ~sigh~ By then, it was nearly the end of my session anyway and I had had enough..... Out of my four hour session on the CM12, I had only managed to get eighteen pictures taken of my samples, and none from the second specimen since the first grid was too thick and I didn't even get to see the second grid. I really dislike working with TEM's.... Though I have been told that the new Zeiss TEM that is being purchased is quite user-friendly and no doubt will be in heavy demand similarly to the XL30 SEM which is all computer/mouse driven compared to the older dial/knob use of the Phillips SEM505 (which is the one I prefer to use).... But, I think I should get banned from using TEM's LOL......
I caught up on my way out with the chap for the clay samples and the EMU staffer on the project and had a brief chat about the work. There is a lot to be done, and as much as I could do it, it would probably be better for someone with more materials background and experience in EDS to do this work. Unlike the dental biofilm work (which is the TEM stuff), this clay work is actually pivotal for some patent applications by a US company, so my own background and experience is lacking, and I wouldn't want to cause a patent to fail if I did a bodgey job for them..... So if someone else can pick it up, then that would be good, otherwise I guess I will continue to do so for the money being the casual work grubber that I currently am.
I also got told that in about two weeks time, the SEM work area and machines will be shut down and out of access for a while due to the renovation work being carried out downstairs. I don't know how that is going to affect the hundreds of users that normally use the machines.... I hope they will have much advanced warning for the users and plans for urgent work to be carried out in other universities...
I was really tired today from all of that, sitting infront of a flurescent/phosphorescent screen for a few hours really drains you and tires the eyes. I hopped on a millenium train at Redfern with only a two minute wait which was lucky, and managed to scab a seat after two stops. I then promptly fell asleep until two stations before my own stop which was also lucky, otherwise it would have been a long trip back depending on where I woke up haha.... I haven't fallen asleep past my stop in a very long time now.....
Oh and for interest, here is one of the pictures I took on the CM12 TEM. If you can identify any features on it for me, please do let me know in the comments section since I'm fairly clueless about what on earth is in it LOL....
Well, today wasn't all bad I guess.
Started off with some TEM staining using Uranyl Acetate and Lead Citrate to provide some contrast to the specimen grids I had microtomed a long time ago. The process was rather simple but since I hadn't actually done it in years, I had to ask someone for assistance in the matter, and it seemed to go ok. I had a slight mishap where one of the grids accidentally shifted into some NaOH pellets and thus ruined the grid due to the reaction between lead citrate and NaOH. Otherwise the whole process took about an hour to do.
I legged it back to engineering for my 11am meeting with Tim Lang of Lang Technologies. We had a discussion in regards to the progress of one of the students projects and about what direction Lang Technologies were hoping to have come from this work. It wasn't that new really since I had heard similar material from my previous meetings but it was good to just see the new developments that they were moving along with. We also decided on visiting their head office in the CBD on Monday so that should be an interesting visit I think. After the meeting though, I walked Mr Lang out and had a brief discussion in regards to their desire to hire me. It would appear that I have been shortlisted along with a few other key people that they would like to employ as they are currently expanding and require more members of staff to ensure good operation of their work. In expanding on the job description, he described that it would involve understanding and learning about the new technologies and sciences involved in their projects, and ensuring that their work would be kept fresh and upfront, and allows for him to concentrate on other aspects instead of having to juggle these aspects as he is currently doing. Unfortunately their people are currently scattered around the place with people in China for business, someone on holiday and this that the other, meaning they haven't been able to sort things out fully. Originally their new CEO was to be at the meeting today, but he got pulled away to another more important meeting that morning by another senior member of their staff, and thus we would meet him on Monday hopefully when we visit their offices.
I then had my session on the CM12 TEM at the EMU in the afternoon. It wasn't the best session I've ever had on the TEM let me say... One of the staffers kindly ran me through the machine quickly as a refresher and everything seemed to go fairly well for the first two samples. Then on the third while adjusting the objective aperture to obtain better contrast, I lost it. When I say I lost it, I couldn't adjust the controls to bring it back into a position to view the specimen. It is an absolute bitch of a system, and there are no real quick and easy ways to get it back into center being an old hand-wound dial method of adjustment. It took quite a while, perhaps fifteen or so minutes for the staffer to re-locate it for me. Then on sample grid number four, I lost high tension. The TEM runs on 120kev, yes, that's right 120 000 volts. Thus, high tension, electrical tension. Well, I'm not entirely sure what happened, why it happened, how it happened, but I lost it. The vacuum system tripped the safety system and turned off the high tension. The staffer came and checked it out, couldn't figure out why, then asked the specialist in the EMU to look at it. They pondered and couldn't figure it out. Booted it back up to speed for me and put the specimen in, and it seemed to work ok. Unfortuantely due to my bad microtoming skills, the section on grid four was too thick to work with, so I had to change the sample to grid number five, and poof, lost high tension again. ~headdesks~ Once again called the EMU TEM specialist to come and look, and he discovered a longitudinal groove in the specimen holder o-ring, which wouldn't have normally caused a vacuum loss to trip the high tension, but it could have been some other random reasons..... ~sigh~ By then, it was nearly the end of my session anyway and I had had enough..... Out of my four hour session on the CM12, I had only managed to get eighteen pictures taken of my samples, and none from the second specimen since the first grid was too thick and I didn't even get to see the second grid. I really dislike working with TEM's.... Though I have been told that the new Zeiss TEM that is being purchased is quite user-friendly and no doubt will be in heavy demand similarly to the XL30 SEM which is all computer/mouse driven compared to the older dial/knob use of the Phillips SEM505 (which is the one I prefer to use).... But, I think I should get banned from using TEM's LOL......
I caught up on my way out with the chap for the clay samples and the EMU staffer on the project and had a brief chat about the work. There is a lot to be done, and as much as I could do it, it would probably be better for someone with more materials background and experience in EDS to do this work. Unlike the dental biofilm work (which is the TEM stuff), this clay work is actually pivotal for some patent applications by a US company, so my own background and experience is lacking, and I wouldn't want to cause a patent to fail if I did a bodgey job for them..... So if someone else can pick it up, then that would be good, otherwise I guess I will continue to do so for the money being the casual work grubber that I currently am.
I also got told that in about two weeks time, the SEM work area and machines will be shut down and out of access for a while due to the renovation work being carried out downstairs. I don't know how that is going to affect the hundreds of users that normally use the machines.... I hope they will have much advanced warning for the users and plans for urgent work to be carried out in other universities...
I was really tired today from all of that, sitting infront of a flurescent/phosphorescent screen for a few hours really drains you and tires the eyes. I hopped on a millenium train at Redfern with only a two minute wait which was lucky, and managed to scab a seat after two stops. I then promptly fell asleep until two stations before my own stop which was also lucky, otherwise it would have been a long trip back depending on where I woke up haha.... I haven't fallen asleep past my stop in a very long time now.....
Oh and for interest, here is one of the pictures I took on the CM12 TEM. If you can identify any features on it for me, please do let me know in the comments section since I'm fairly clueless about what on earth is in it LOL....
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