Back to the lab

I was starting to feel like a lecturer! Spending lots of time in the office, preparing lectures, and not going to the lab. At all. But now the cruise is over. And we have six tonnes of sediment! And most of that has ended up in Durham, while the rest is in Edinburgh, but Bangor has at least a kilo. I brought the shells and similar stuff we had already sampled from the cores, and put away in a tupperware box for later 14C dating. And the bulk samples I wanted to wash out, to see if there would be small things we could date. Foraminifera, for instance. Or ostracods! So I could go back to being a postdoc, and get my hands dirty in the lab.

A new lab is always a bit of a hassle; you never know where things are, or how things are done. Where are the sieves? Is there an ultrasonic bath to clean them? What sort of containers are there to store samples in? Where are the fridges, the freezers, and how does one get access to them? Where are the chemicals, and where does the distilled water come from? Is there a radio? Is it someone's private possession? Can it get any decent stations? All these questions. But soon I'll have all the answers (I'm already mostly there, largely thanks to the spiffing man who runs the place) and soon I'll be at home there. It's a proper slightly run-down geeky academic little lab! And well, the teaching preparation will still have to be done, but nobody wouldn't expect that to not become a job for the evenings...

 

The wet lab, for sieving

The dry lab, for checking the samples