Lab Stuff

I'm in Dr. Smith's lab working on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC's: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-oxide_fuel_cell) and I'll be working on the thin films covering the interconnects...they've got two different Co/Mn films that are doped with different metals and they want to see the rates of oxidation for each of the films, which is where I come in.  I get to be the Post-Doc's (Hugh) servant and help him with the RBS results.

The lab itself is pretty cool: all the guys - I'm the only girl, hah - are really nice and funny, there are a ton of wires, cords, old computers, posters, and machines.  Notably a Van de Graaf accelerator and its beam lines that take up like...half the lab.  The first day I was there it broke, which apparently happens about every three months-ish, and I got to see the inside, which looked something like this:

It's a little newer than the one up there, but the lab still has that same basement-y feel depicted in the photo.  And tanks of gases just hanging out.  I've been afraid of knocking one over ever since Dr. Goren told me in PChem that if you do the tank pretty much becomes a torpedo...