Wind and breakage.

[zotz]

The monochromator's back off to Germany - again - and it's starting to get a bit breezy outside. Maybe this time the forecasts are right? Watch this space.

It was interesting getting the mail from the makers yesterday. Even through the language barrier and the transcription to electrons and back, you could hear the scraping of fingernails as they fretted over what the problem could be.

It's very quiet here.

Looks like I've got the Genetics Society membership sorted. That's the 28th nailed, then.

Comments

[davefish.livejournal.com]

Occasionally you get monochromators that go off hiking in the Lake District. They are a real pain, as they get back covered in mud and soggy, and expect you to clean them up and dry them out.

Bloody instruments!

[zotz]

Amen, brother.

[technotom.livejournal.com]

The monochromator's back off to Germany - again

That piece of equipment - whatever the bastard does - has the nicest and most satisfying ring to its name. Monochromator.. sounds like something from Joe 90 or Star Trek.

"Captain, the monochromator has shed a protoflange into the primary heat exchanger. I've rerouted warp power through the tertiary transmission coils and disengaged the centrifugal perculators, but due to the excess strain on the magnetic interlock converter, we wont be able to exceed more than warp 3.6."

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

"In other words, Scotty, it's going to take us six months to get home."
"Aye, Cap'n."

[sheepthief.livejournal.com]

How quaint. We replaced all that with a transmogrification sequencer years ago.

[zotz]

Great, so long as you don't run out of teabags.

[steer.livejournal.com]

The monochromator

Hmmm... it makes things a single colour? Is it a paint roller?

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

No, it's a light switch.

[zotz]

It's a light switch.

I've talked about this before. It takes the light from a xenon discharge bulb and uses the obvious mechanism of a diffraction grating and a movable slit to produce a beam of light with a frequency spread of roughly 20nm. We use it, when it's working, for widefield fluorescence microscopy. When it isn't working - and it has a nasty habit of blowing its power supply while being turned off - we use it as ballast for a series of experiments in intra-EU couriered transportation.

[steer.livejournal.com]

Or a blindfold -- that way you could subject only one person at once to monochromation.

Now I have the idea of a gang of pervy daleks with blindfolds shouting "monochromate, monochromate" at people.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I've talked about this before.

Damn -- I just haven't been listening.

[zotz]

Very wise, chief. As a bouncer at the Astoria said when he searched my bag and found not drugs or booze, but bogroll.

[steer.livejournal.com]

I'd have taken roach spray too.

[zotz]

I know the food in there's expensive, but not enough to make the roaches seem palatable. Anyway, i'm vegetaran.

[deliberateblank.livejournal.com]

Measuring frequency as a distance? The USB guys measure length in seconds...

[technotom.livejournal.com]

Or a blindfold -- that way you could subject only one person at once to monochromation.

At the monochromation station?