Tuesday 12 July 2016

gold again!

To continue from a previous post,  I see from the ET report that they used GC-MS and that the gold was in the ionic form.  I am out of touch with the modern developments in Chemistry, but from what I remember, GC with or without MS is used for volatile compounds. How did they estimate gold in the ionic form using GC-MS?
What eluting gas and what stationary phase was used for this, if it is possible?
I get these forwards on Whatsapp that proudly announce the building of a huge temple in the US or the chanting of the Bhagavad Gita by white children in the UK. It is seen as a sign of how great we are! That's really nice. But that's really nice of THEM! So we must encourage our children to chant prayers from religions other than the one they follow. That's what it means. If you think it is great that there is a huge Venkateswara temple in a country that's predominantly Christian, the equivalence would be a huge place of worship for a non predominant religion in our country.
The Whatsapp group has people of normal intelligence, but this simple equivalence seems to be beyond them!

Saturday 9 July 2016

All that glisters is not gold

I would have thought that "scientists" working in a science department would have some knowledge of chemistry, or at least enough to know that elemental synthesis requires extraordinary conditions. If you find 3 mg/L gold in the urine of a cow, the grass you fed it must have had much more. So lets look at the wonder grass instead.  According to them, the clear indication of the presence of gold is the yellow colour of the urine. Really? "All that glisters is not gold, often have you heard that told..." or in this case all that's yellow is not gold.
What method did they use for the estimation of gold I wonder.
It reminds me of the crime-drama serials I love to watch---CSI, Bones etc where they do a GC-MS of some tissue sample and it shows sharp peaks labelled Na, CN etc. 

Ceiling fan

 I read somewhere that as a solution for student suicides, IISc has decided to remove fans from hostel rooms. No fan, no suicide. This shoul...