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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 2d

Just discovered you can recycle blister packs at Boots pharmacies. Wonder if they take blister packs from GC consumables (ferrules, inlet liners, o-rings, etc) too?
I already the PET containers some vendors use in the household recycling.
www.boots.com/shopping/boo...

Blister Pack Recycling | Recycle at Boots Scheme

Recycle your empty blister packs in-store and earn Advantage Card points when you spend £5 at participating stores. Terms and conditions apply.

www.boots.com

Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 6d

Does your GC/GC-MS have a lonely heart and yearn for a PAL-xt instead of a boring Agilent ALS.
@pal-system.bsky.social

Spectrometrics Limited @spectrometrix.bsky.social · 6d

🥰 For Sale: Refurbished PAL-xt sampler seeking a new GC-MS soulmate! Fully serviced, ready to inject love into your lab. Reliable, precise, & full of charm.
email: [email protected] for details! 💖
#LabEquipment #GCMS #ScienceLove

GERSTEL branded PAL-xt sampler configured for headspace and liquid injection

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 9d

Appreciate that it’s a long shot but does anyone have a Sigma SPME/HPLC interface (57350-U) in a drawer somewhere that they could donate to an R&D project.

Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 10d

After a 20h day on Friday and pulling into the drive after 1am Saturday, logging in today to discover a grant application deadline extension was most welcome.

a man wearing glasses and a brown suit is sitting on a couch and making a funny face .

Alt: Jeff Goldblum wearing glasses and a brown suit, sitting on a couch and running his hand across his forehead

media.tenor.com

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 14d

Get to the train early and it’s running 20minutes late (glad I accounted for potentially delayed DB service when I booked).

Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · 14d

Late finish and early start. Two coffees is not enough: where do I get the IV caffeine?

a cartoon cat is holding a camera in his hands and looking at it .

Alt: Tom (Tom & Jerry) taping his eyelids open

media.tenor.com

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

When I first fully automated metabolomics MOX-TMS sample prep in 2007/2008, the main driver was data quality. Improved productivity, sustainability and effective use of person resource were secondary (to us), but secured the grant funding from BBSRC. @ukri.org
ROI: 2x CapEx costs, 10x OpEx savings

a robot says hi rajarshi here in yellow

Alt: a black and white humanoid robot waving

media.tenor.com

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

The same can’t be said of the T3 version

Stretched red VW T3 minibus with additional panel in front of sliding side door

Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Sep 6

I think the proportions on this may actually be an improvement on the original

Stretched VW T2 bay window camper with additional panel in front of sliding door

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Sep 5

In my experience:
• there are things that won’t work
• and things that didn’t work because old chemists didn’t understand why they didn’t work and/or the technology has developed so they now will
Wisdom is to know the difference

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Sep 5

No problem with standard abbreviation. The issue is using non-standard ambiguous abbreviation that is a safety risk (in my career, I’ve seen enough incidents and near misses caused by unambiguous abbreviations).
MeCN is unambiguous (albeit legacy), CH3CN is preferred (IUPAC blue book).

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 25

For most analytical derivatization, I’d rather take the time to validate a methyl iodide based method.

Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 24

In this case the reference book was written before the toxicity was understood…

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 23

Wikipedia article for TMS diazomethane says it’s safer than diazomethane - when I did the risk assessment we estimated that it was at least 3-4 orders of magnitude more toxic than diazomethane, toxic by all routes of administration and probably permeates nitrile gloves #ChemSky

two men in yellow coveralls are standing next to each other with the words let 's cook written on the bottom

Alt: two men in yellow coveralls are standing next to each other with the words let 's cook written on the bottom

media.tenor.com

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 22

With budgets hard to secure, upgrading your existing instrument can be an affordable and sustainable way to add to your labs capabilities.
And you can catch me at #BMSS25 next month to learn more.

Spectrometrics Limited @spectrometrix.bsky.social · Aug 22

Did you know you can upgrade your existing Agilent MSD to a triple quad for a fraction of the price of a 7000E. You can even upgrade a diff pump system!
[email protected]
#sustainability #greenchemistry

Agilent 5977A MSD with Evolution QQQ upgrade

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

shop.unigreenscheme.co.uk/general-labo...

Agilent PAL3 Series II LSI 85 Hardware Bundle with New 88xx Mounting Kit

Agilent PAL3 Series II LSI 85 Hardware Bundle with New 88xx Mounting Kit This item is sold on behalf of a client where it is surplus to requirements. This item is in complete working order, and in goo...

shop.unigreenscheme.co.uk

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

100 mL anhydrous for derivatization - the acetonitrile was obvious when the MOX didn’t dissolve. The pyridine was just obvious!

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

Really big, very well established one

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

Only when what’s on the label is what’s in the bottle. I’ve had vendor mislabelling: bottle of acetonitrile turned out to be pyridine (and on a separate occasion the reverse). Also had nitrogen in a helium cylinder (28 on the MS tune was a ‘bit’ high).

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

The random bottle simply labelled ether (it’s probably going to be petroleum or diethyl) - “what do you mean the days when you couldn’t get a degree without knowing the top 10 organic solvents (including benzene and carbon tetrachloride) by smell are over”.
Similarly alcohol…

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 21

Anyone else have a particular bugbear about the use of ambiguous abbreviations in the organic and biochemistry lab.
ACN: one person’s acrylonitrile is another one’s acetonitrile
IAA: iodoacetamide or auxin?
I’ve seen enough near-misses through ambiguous labelling to last a lifetime.
#ChemSky

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 16

Annual hedge pruning starts today
It’s ‘only’ 80ft long, and [currently] 4m high

a man is raking a hedge with a rake while a lawn mower is behind him .

Alt: A man pruning a hedge with a lawnmower on a stick

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 15

Looking forward to the 45th BMSS meeting next month.
@bmss-official.bsky.social

Photo of Edinburgh International Conference Centre against a blue sky

Reposted by Nathan Hawkins

Spectrometrics Limited @spectrometrix.bsky.social · Aug 15

Calling #TeamMetabolomics UK - Spectrometrics has 3 #Metabolomics PrepStations in stock to automate the Fiehn MOX-TMS Protocol. Great for teaching metabolomics or for early career researchers wanting to automate GC-MS metabolomics.
@scotmetnet.bsky.social @emn-metsoc.bsky.social @lbmsdg.bsky.social

Spectrometrics Limited @spectrometrix.bsky.social · Jul 29

Did you know you can miss (less stable) metabolites, or their derivatives with batch prep? They’re filtered out in your preprocessing. Just-in-time metabolomics preserves them, boosting feature retention & biomarker discovery.
#Metabolomics #ScienceTips #PrepAhead
[email protected]

Metabolomics prep-station (rail based sampler with trays, wash stations and incubators) for just-in-time MOX-TMS GC-MS Metabolomics

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Nathan Hawkins @nathhawkins.bsky.social · Aug 8

Will get round to installing VMs on my desktop and laptop - needed to establish how far I needed to roll-back to make them work. Think MassTransit stopped working when I upgraded from Windows 10 to 11.

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