Let there be no light!

So part of my research involves, or at least will involve the use of lasers. Yeah, I know, it's freaking cool! Ok, it's not sharks with freaking lasers, but at least they are still cool, they're lasers after all. Well up until this point I was unable to do anything significant with this part of my research because I didn't have a dark room. Despite the inherent coolness of lasers, to use them for fluorescence detection (what I'll be doing) everything needs to be done in the dark; though if you could see the beam at all times that might make them super cool. But things need to be done in the dark because the intensity of light coming from the fluorescent compounds is so low that ambient light in a normal room will make the fluorescence indistinguishable to the detector.

Well, after what seems like ages of waiting for the one guy who does fabrication/repairs for the department to get around to building it, I finally have my dark room! It's still needs some finishing touches, but for the most part it's done and I'll soon be able to start a new phase of my research. Now I just need to get used to what looks like a giant red shower curtain in the middle of my lab. But hey, I don't know anyone else who has a red dark room, so that's kind of cool right?

In other news I have have a new iPhone. It wasn't by choice, but at least it was free. See there seems to be a bit of a manufacturing defect with the 3G version of the iPhone. Deirdre and I noticed that when I first got the phone the switch was much harder to move than on her older version of the iPhone. Incidentally it's the only movable part on the phone that isn't a button. Anyway, last night I was switching the ringer off and, with virtually no effort, the thing just snapped right off. But as I said, I got the phone replaced for free, which makes sense considering the cost of the damn thing. Not that I don't love the phone as much as ever, it really does rock.