Santa´s elf with cleanrom suit

Ho Ho Ho!
This morning, when nobody was around, I put some windows Xmas decorations on the cleanrooms´transparent doors. PhD students were quite amused, but I really hope the Punisher won´t catch me...

He was not very happy when some time ago I appended outside the cleanroom door the removable front door mat (on which people clean their CLEANROOM boots before entering) showing the footprint of NORMAL shoes which accidentally bore the same brand as his own...

microfluidics in the kitchen!

This is really cool!

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2007/12/macgyver-scienc.html


next time in the kitchen... lamb on chips!

plasma

Some time ago, the Punisher found CSI in the clean room making an alternative RIE process using a plasma of Hydrogen and Oxygen...
"AAAAAAGGGHHH!" he cried "What the hell are you doing?? It is DANGEROUS! The mixture can explode!!!"
"Don' t worry" CSI replied " I have exactly calculated the amount of gases in order to be completely safe"
"And what about the machine's precision in measuring gas fluxes?" the Punisher asked
"Ops!" was the answer.

So we can conclude two things
1- always consider the REAL instruments that you are using
2 - bad grass never dies

Caipiranha: an explosive cocktail

Piranha solution is not a subtle way to get rid of annoying people (at least not yet :p ), but a mixture of hydrogen peroxide and sulphuric acid, and it is commonly used to clean samples.
The simplest recipe that I was taught was the following: put in a glass a certain amount of sulphuric acid, then pour hydrogen peroxide till it starts smoking.
You can now understand why it is called "piranha"..

Some time ago, CSI (Crazy Scientist Indeed) and his Ph.D student IKE (I Know Everything), were in the clean room preparing piranha. IKE has a bachelor in chemistry. After using the solution to clean their samples, while it was still warm, IKE put it in a piranha waste bottle which was already half full....and tightily closed the lid....
BOOOMMMMMM!
After a few seconds the bottle exploded. Luckily they both had moved away and the piranha reched only CSI's trousers.
The clean room was evacuated for almost a week and remained smelly for a month.
And if you come and visit us and look at the ceiling you can still see the trace of the explosion..

So, what can we conclude?
Two things:

1- Always be careful with waste bottles, and leave them degassing before closing the lids
2- Bad grass never dies