February 20, 2004
Unexpected beauty on the laboratory bench
A couple of days ago I was working in the chem lab under time pressure, preparing a number of buffer solutions for a kinetics exercise prior to a tedious and time-consuming spectroscopy run. I'd very carefully delivered fixed amounts of various reagents when, at the last phase of preparation, I added minute amounts (0.3 mL each) of bromocresol green indicator (AKA 3,3',5,5'-Tetrabromo-m-cresolsulfonphthalein), this happened:
I had to stop at this moment and pull out that little digital camera I keep in my cargo pockets when I'm clothed. These little moments of unexpected beauty (to my eyes, at least) should be appreciated, and sometimes shared with friends. Here's what they looked like after mixing but before analysis:
This reminds me a bit of before and after shots of a line of carefully prepared cocktails in a Vegas casino bar.
Posted by Russell Whitaker at February 20, 2004 11:28 PM | TrackBack