Tuesday, February 21, 2012

The Poetry of Science

Even though my lab days are far behind me, I sometimes wish I was still a white coated, pocket protector wielding instrument jockey. Rev up that AA, IR, MS and GC and drop the green flag. Race on!

There is still one lab instrument that to me sounds like it should be a fine Italian sports car, a Lamborghini perhaps. And that is an Inductively Coupled Plasma (ICP). Doesn't that just roll off of your tongue? "Inductively Coupled Plasma." Like perfection; the analytical laboratory version of a sleek, hand-crafted race car. All it needs is a shiny hood ornament and a Le Mans pit crew.

Contrast that with the words and phrases we're forced to put up with in our coarse, everyday lives: "Lady Ga Ga", "tax-deferred annuities", and the dreaded, "paradigm shift." Ugh. Crude. Shallow.

Inductively Coupled Plasma. Vroom.

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