It's quiz time. Check out the flash column below. I may look like any other flash column but it is a truly unusual little fella. This is the first chromatography column of this kind I have ever put eyes on. I admired it for quite a while together with the other guys in the lab. We were all there for the packing and loading. 
Amazing stuff...our presence really freaked the guy running the column out. I don't think he grasped the significance of what he was doing. Anyway, what do you think is so special about it? D!
Amazing stuff...our presence really freaked the guy running the column out. I don't think he grasped the significance of what he was doing. Anyway, what do you think is so special about it? D!
I really can't tell. It's a cute little thing, though (I work on a larger scale)
ReplyDeleteMy guess is it's a C18-column.
ReplyDeleteThat's not an inert gas he is running it with...
ReplyDeleteHe is probably left handed, but I guess thats not the question.
ReplyDeleteI've looked at this picture for a while and I can't see anything out of the ordinary. What gives?
ReplyDeleteNope, I don't get it either. Looks pretty much the same as one of the columns I ran today. The screw-caps are great, but are a bugger to get hold of.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with you all. It looks like a perfectly normal column. It's not a C18 column, he was using nitrogen as the gas just because it was handy and he's actually right handed. The column was run by a reasonably experienced chemist. In other words this isn't the first column he's run.........D!
ReplyDeleteI think we're looking for an answer here. The only thing unusual is that you say "I may look like any other flash column". So we're guessing that this is actually a grad student and not a column at all.
ReplyDeleteAm I close?
There's the impure version of your Shiny New Product running through that column, with the pure stuff dripping out below?
ReplyDeleteYou're super happy and opening up the champainge?
There is no pressure guage so that the correct pressure can be adjusted and repeated in the next prep. No safety shield either.
ReplyDeleteI actually know what it is because it is obvious and anybody skilled in art can figure it for himself just by looking at the picture. Quite clearly it is a chiral stationary phase, that was made by standard ROMP-polymerisation of Funebrene B on dichotomaceous earth.
ReplyDeleteIt may look like a regular chromatography but works on rather more advanced level: Basically, you can pour your most frustratingly homochiral material on top of the column and a completely pure racemate will come out.
It's veeeeery exciting innit? The column in the picture is just a regular good old flash column. What makes this column very special is that the guy who was running it will NEVER run another column again. In other words this was his LAST COLUMN EVER! That's pretty intense stuff man! We didn't kill him or cut off his arms he simply refuses to ever do experimental chemistry again. He would rather face unemployment sleeping on a bench in the park covered in newspaper than having to distil solvents, clean glass ware, run columns, cut TLC plates, recrystallise samples for elemental analysis, assign NMR spectra etc. I like experimental chemistry but I would be lying if I said I liked running columns. What makes this column special is that most of us will not know it when we run our last column ever. Maybe the one you run today is your last one maybe not....Which brings me to my next question: Does anyone know how many columns they have run in total? How many columns does an average chemist run per year? I’ll dig out all my old lab books and start counting. I have a feeling it’s going to be a depressingly large number. D!
ReplyDeleteThe answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
ReplyDeleteThe answer is blowin' in the wind.
knew a guy that just drifted away, taking a last stand seems way better
ReplyDeleteDu er sgu skør daniel. LOL
ReplyDelete