Life in the Lab: Unpleasant Discovery

Yesterday, I found a stoppered test tube of mercury in the back of a drawer. Since it was visibly dirty, the professor decided to dispose of it. I asked why we had it, and one of the graduate students replied, "The real question is, why do we have this?" - and pulled a liter jar of the stuff out of a bucket under a table. Apparently nobody knows. But it's still perfectly good mercury and would be very expensive to safely get rid of. So they keep it.

Other findings of note included approximately 1lb of sodium metal in the cabinet under my fume hood, distributed among at least three jars (that I noticed). Two are topped off with mineral oil, and one with kerosene, which strikes me as an odd choice. The fist-size chunk in the clear jar appears badly corroded, and all of the jars look to be old.

PSA: Violins

If you or anyone you know is in the market for a violin, the ebay market is currently flooded with them. I snagged a rather nice instrument at 5% of its ordinary retail price.

Somewhat to my embarrassment, I now own two violins. I placed a fairly low bid on the instrument mentioned above, more or less expecting to be outbid (similar ones were going for higher, but in retrospect those were mostly a flashier model). In the mean time, I found a different seller who was willing to haggle over the price of a cheap student model, and bought that. Forgetting about the first auction until I recieved the e-mail telling me that I'd won it. Err, whoops?

I need another project like I need a hole in the head, but I seem to have embarked on one anyway. At least it should be fun.