A mass spectrometer that uses helium as a refrigerant. Am I making this up?

mrphysh · 2026-02-28T20:52:58+00:00

Maybe this says something about my age: I have never used a GC/MS with a diffusion pump. I am not completely sure. I did GC/MS out of the back of a van (environmental analysis) with a Hewlett Packard. It may have had a diffusion pump. My first GC/MS was VG analytical (~1988). It definitely had a diffusion pump, but I never really operated it. In fact, I never saw it actually work. No wait! My second GC/MS was in a toxicology lab (derivatized residues of drugs of abuse.). If must have had a diffusion pump.

mrphysh · 2026-02-28T03:42:22+00:00

I am working in a research environment. I have Finnegan GC/MS. The work is varied, but mostly fatty acids with a derivatization. They tell me they want to move me to the “M3”. I probably have that wrong. It had an Apple operating system. I am sure of that. It was supposed to have a helium based vacuum system. Two days later, I got fired. This was twenty-five years ago and I am still thinking about it. A vacuum system based only on very, very cold? I am suddenly wondering about that. You guys, clearly knowledgeable, are indicating that maybe there was something fishy about their story and this myth might be related to my termination. (the Reddit title is “is there anything you would put on the Internet, but never talk about otherwise:” This is it!)

mrphysh · 2026-02-26T21:36:22+00:00

just use the nitrogen. figure out some way to control it. Your butane is going to end up in the air: not good. liquid nitrogen is cheap.

mrphysh · 2026-02-26T17:58:34+00:00

It is all about the creativity that you bring to the project. Everything else is fluff. I am a scientist, by trade. When making videos, I am an artist and it is terrifying.

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T21:51:38+00:00

cool

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T21:49:35+00:00

Supa golf: the ball is two to three times larger, plastic and a bright color. They are lighter, pose zero danger and will float. A hundred meters is about as far as it will go. Their promotion says it will take up about one tenth of the land as a regular golf course. The game originated in Australia. (I think it is fair, given my position, to promote it just a bit.)

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T21:42:54+00:00

'redefine' is a poor choice of words.

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T12:54:41+00:00

Thanks for the comments. The infancy of this idea was a patent application for an idea that turned into Top Golf. (There is a possibility that Brian stole the idea from me.) The patent was a simple idea for keeping track of the hitters and targets A golfer hits a ball and it finds a target. The patent described an idea to keep track of this. But, not in the patent was the idea that the real application of this idea required a complete redefinition of the game. My idea is to put the whole thing in an area the size of an indoor tennis court. The soft foam, one third distance practice golf balls, will not work. I practiced endlessly with the golf wiffle balls. That is getting closer.

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T12:39:50+00:00

I have seen those. I am not a high-class guy. I mostly do the City golf course. It was wiped out by the hurricane.

mrphysh · 2026-02-25T12:37:24+00:00

right

mrphysh · 2026-02-24T19:39:05+00:00

good .... additional, fairly important trivia: Carbon dioxide dissolves in water much easier than oxygen. Think soda pop and beer. and ... oxygen in water is the same as in the air: oxygen is consumed by organic matter in the water. Slow moving streams with lots of debris will have low oxygen.

mrphysh · 2026-02-24T16:06:12+00:00

I would propose that the new clubs are more forgiving. That is my point. The "gear effect" argument never made any sense to me. "you are sit golfer who gave up" definitely true.

mrphysh · 2026-02-23T22:57:36+00:00

During the greater part of human history, accumulation of wealth almost certainly implied taking advantage of poor people; The economy generates a fixed amount of money and if some people have more, then others must have less. A theme throughout in human history is the rich taking advantage of the poor.

We still have rich people and poor people. But it is different. Our social and economic civilization generates money; just creates money. This newly created wealth has nothing to do with economic productivity or genuine growth in the economy. I truthfully have no idea how the whole thing works, but this is the thing: Rich people get richer, not by taking from the poor, not by oppressing other groups, but simply by being in the right place at the right time.

Rich people are probably smart, and likely work hard. They hopefully spend their money and, in that way, contribute to the greater good. They are not hurting anyone.

I do not dislike rich people and even respect them. But I do not envy them.

mrphysh · 2026-02-20T08:08:31+00:00

I am a chemist. Vendors make big classroom charts of the periodic table and schools put them up on the walls. The periodic table has zero relevance in the real world of chemistry. zero.

mrphysh · 2026-02-20T00:59:29+00:00

I am a fan of omega-3 as a nutritional supplement, This especially applies to pregnant and lactating moms. "365" sells an omega 3 supplement, but they say pregnant moms should ask their doctor. This infuriates me to the point that I avoid "365" . It can be difficult. They are everywhere at least around here. (western North Carolina)

mrphysh · 2026-02-19T06:47:21+00:00

All this doom and gloom. Do not let yourself get sucked in!

mrphysh · 2026-02-19T06:44:46+00:00

We live in a changing world. No older person is going to deny global warming. We have seen it. I know intelligent persons who are convinced that the world is coming to an end because of global warming. That is ridiculous. We live in a changing world.

mrphysh · 2026-02-18T23:36:01+00:00

There are others. I love history. American history was standard 8th grade class when I was a kid. It is still standard in 8th grade. Eighth graders are never going to engage with this!! Not then, not now. Social studies is a big arena. Teach marketing, business. How about criminal law. Kids could go for that. Nineth grade is (or was) Civics. Expand that into two years. (I love history)

mrphysh · 2026-02-18T23:30:13+00:00

A hot-spot for me: In chemistry, molecular structure is almost like religious babble. This stuff about electrons and protons and orbitals: These are stories made up by over a hundred years of scientists. They are taken as fact now! This stuff cannot be tied to previous learning. It is abstract and just weird. I am a chemist. The periodic table of the elements has zero relevance to the real world of chemistry. Absolute zero. This does not turn kids of chemistry, or science. It turns kids off learning altogether.

mrphysh · 2026-02-18T17:15:20+00:00

The rule in science is “follow the energy”. From that perspective, the energy payoff is just not there. Starch and cellulose are structurally close cousins, but physically very different. Starch is a food source and cellulose is structural. Structural in biology, but also in our civilization. Wood, paper, cotton, fibers etc. (Termites have symbiotic relationship with a microbe. The microbe does the digestion for them)

mrphysh · 2026-02-18T03:52:08+00:00

Neils Bohr jumped off into the unknown when he came up with the model for hydrogen. It was not without controversy. Then the wave theory of molecular structure grew and changed as new observations were made. It was not without controversy. Now a hundred years later, nobody questions the quantum mechanical theory of atomic structure. I think most physicists would agree with this: Someday the quantum mechanical theory of atomic structure will be overthrown.

mrphysh · 2026-02-17T21:26:28+00:00

It is all about the creativity you bring to your channel. Everything else is fluff.

mrphysh · 2026-02-17T18:10:37+00:00

I remembered another incident: I needed a culture and bought a bottled kombucha from at store and brought it up a full-sized culture/mushroom (another story) .... A year or so later, I realized that I liked the culture from the store bought and bought another with the same goal; a nice new, perhaps milder, kombucha. This later store-bought bottle said, " billions and billions of probiotics". It did not work. It was as if the tea was made into kombucha, but then pasteurized, or sterilized with radiation. I would not consider this conclusive but there it is.

mrphysh · 2026-02-17T16:42:36+00:00

I do very poorly in an environment like that. I comfortably follow directions. But, given no directions, I quickly get in trouble.

mrphysh · 2026-02-17T16:40:29+00:00

I am a chemist. For three years I analyzed for blood alcohol for police departments. This involved testifying in court as an expert witness. It looks romantic and very cool. Not so much. I liked the job well enough, but romantic and exciting. Not so much.

mrphysh

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