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caritasI've presented myself as pretty singleminded, thinking only of relationships, but it's not so...and, to make this point, I'll make a post about how I make my money.
I'm a prostitute.
...okay, not really, but I like to imagine your face, dearest reader, as your eyes pass over those words.
In truth, I'm an acid digestion specialist for a fire assay company (wow, that feels awfully redundant from the title of this entry). It's a big fancy title, but what I *do* is very simple and boring...a trained monkey could do most of it.
Basically, the company I work for analyzes samples. Soils and the like. Through our ICP processes (ICP-OES and ICP-MS), we can measure what's in the dirt...and through our fire assay process coupled with a high tech machine that reads those results, we can determine gold content. Obviously, we work closely with gold mines, but they're not our only clients.
My job is the centerpoint of it all (and I'm the only one who does it)...I do the acid digestion. That's the step that comes between grinding the dirt/rock sample into dust or firing it in furnaces, and the really sexy machines that can read the digested samples. I use a combination of nitric, hydrochloric, perchloric, and hydrofluoric acids to break down the samples given to me. Despite all the really cool science involved, it's actually rather dull. I have the acids set up with pumps that dispense exact amounts. I sit there, and pump acid into test tube after test tube, then heat the test tubes, add more acids, and dilute the whole thing with water.
Sounds a bit mind-numbing, yes? But, I'm a geek, and chemistry is my favorite 'hard' science, so I've gotten really into the science behind this. I put together research in my off time, and read through it and try to figure out what I'm doing at work (because there's a lot of "put it on the hot plate and wait for half an hour," I get lots of downtime to read). Maybe I'll get into all that stuff sometime, but for now, I feel I've rambled quite enough...hopefully I've been clear, it's a process I never knew existed prior to getting this job (I knew someone who knew someone, hence landing the position). If you have any questions, about anything, ask, I'll try to explain as best I can. :)
I'm a prostitute.
...okay, not really, but I like to imagine your face, dearest reader, as your eyes pass over those words.
In truth, I'm an acid digestion specialist for a fire assay company (wow, that feels awfully redundant from the title of this entry). It's a big fancy title, but what I *do* is very simple and boring...a trained monkey could do most of it.
Basically, the company I work for analyzes samples. Soils and the like. Through our ICP processes (ICP-OES and ICP-MS), we can measure what's in the dirt...and through our fire assay process coupled with a high tech machine that reads those results, we can determine gold content. Obviously, we work closely with gold mines, but they're not our only clients.
My job is the centerpoint of it all (and I'm the only one who does it)...I do the acid digestion. That's the step that comes between grinding the dirt/rock sample into dust or firing it in furnaces, and the really sexy machines that can read the digested samples. I use a combination of nitric, hydrochloric, perchloric, and hydrofluoric acids to break down the samples given to me. Despite all the really cool science involved, it's actually rather dull. I have the acids set up with pumps that dispense exact amounts. I sit there, and pump acid into test tube after test tube, then heat the test tubes, add more acids, and dilute the whole thing with water.
Sounds a bit mind-numbing, yes? But, I'm a geek, and chemistry is my favorite 'hard' science, so I've gotten really into the science behind this. I put together research in my off time, and read through it and try to figure out what I'm doing at work (because there's a lot of "put it on the hot plate and wait for half an hour," I get lots of downtime to read). Maybe I'll get into all that stuff sometime, but for now, I feel I've rambled quite enough...hopefully I've been clear, it's a process I never knew existed prior to getting this job (I knew someone who knew someone, hence landing the position). If you have any questions, about anything, ask, I'll try to explain as best I can. :)
