Saturday, May 10, 2008

Trace elemental analysis of a big night out


SAMPLEMoZrSrRbPbAsZnFeMnCrTi
brown beer bottle <LOD621242428 <LOD <LOD1534 <LOD563251
green beer bottle <LOD575730 <LOD <LOD <LOD2483126129899
brown beer bottle <LOD701212319 <LOD <LOD1834 <LOD455145
fancy wine glass <LOD9428136526037262 <LOD <LOD <LOD10179
green wine bottle <LOD70892416 <LOD <LOD1329 <LOD911156
clear Southern Comfort bottle
<LOD444107 <LOD <LOD <LOD <LOD303 <LOD <LOD 244
white porcelain (Ooops!)527.832512851547852110480878 <LOD150545
all units ppm (mg/kg).

Thoughts:
When drinking from fancy wine glasses, it is imperative to chug your wine before it can leach anything out of the glass.

On a related note, if you break such a glass, DON'T RECYCLE IT! High lead glasses are fairly harmless if they sit empty most of the time, but if they come back as vinegar or baby food bottles?

U/Pb geochronologists of a certain flavour like to laud zircon as the king of minerals, with unmatched longevity, retention, and complexity. The last analysis adequately describes how society in general feels about this mineral, which is the source for all industrial zirconia.

Disclaimer! This is a synthetic data set, meaning that either the numbers, and/or the implied conditions of analysis are made up. The data is real, but you'll have to get me drunk before I spill the methodological beans. DO NOT operate analytical equipment that uses high voltage or ionizing radiation while smashed. It creates too much unnecessary work for the poor technician who has to come in and fix everything the next morning.

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