Nanotour

Today I was “invited” to be at the TEM for three hours while the international advisory committee for the Nanocentre toured the facilities and met students and postdocs who just happened to be working on the instruments.

I got to meet Mark Ratter from Northwestern again, who happens to be one of the friendliest scientists out there. I don’t think he remembered me from when he came to Alberta (he gave me five bucks for being the first grad student to ask a question in his talk), but that is OK.

I showed my little nanoparticles, described my project, waxed poetic about how great it was to have a TEM at my finger tips, ect. All in all, park ranger skills came in handy again.

Just as I was finishing up my TEM session, I heard some weird noises outside. Costi, my labmate, came in and said with enthusiasm “Did you hear the air raid sirens?”
“Is that what they were?” I asked.
“Don’t worry it is over now,” he replied. “I haven’t hear that sound in Jerusalem in years” he added nonchalantly.
I paused for a second and then I put my head in my hand, shook my head, and muttered a blasphemy. This country in nuts sometimes. But rest easy everyone, turns out it was a malfunction in the sirens.

Three hours at the TEM has its payoffs. I analyzed the images of my particles this afternoon and I am about 70 percent sure of awesomeness. I need to do more experiments, OF COURSE.