Soil Science Society of North Carolina Meeting

Hi everyone, this is Audrey. I know, long time no post. Everyone has been busy traveling or working in the lab with no time to blog. We have some exciting posts to share, so I hope you enjoy them! On January 20-21, the Soil Science Society of North Carolina held their yearly meeting which is one of the largest state meetings in the country. Believe it or not, North Carolina is one of the leading states in soil research. I had a poster looking at arsenic and lead levels in porewater and sediments of golf course and sod farm ponds across the Sandhills region of North Carolina.

Allison also had a poster on her current work looking at the effects on soil and crops from the coal ash spill from Duke Energy into the Dan River. This is, of course, a topic of extreme interest, so Allison had her work cut out for her answering all the questions. Overall, Allison won 3rd place for her poster, so congratulations to her!

And finally, Matt gave a talk on the cause and effects of arsenic loading into groundwater in Southeast Asia's and how soils play a role. Unfortunately I didn't get a picture, but he gave a great talk! Liz was the moderator for the Soil and Groundwater Contamination session as well. As you can see, we were an active group in this years meeting!

Fun at the Argonne National Laboratory?

Greetings from Chicago (sort of)! Matt, DJ and I (Audrey) are at the Argonne National Laboratory using the synchrotron for our Cambodia sediments and the MSMA turfgrass project. If you aren't well versed in the synchrotron, you can find information here. Don't worry, we're still learning more about it ourselves (well, except for Matt). Here is an aerial view of the whole system:

*photo courtesy of the APS*

As you can see, it is quite the setup. Here are some additional pictures from our trip so far:

Work Station-yes, we use around 8 monitors

 This is actually where we put the sample in. We don't get to see this room very often and it closes with authority. The beam goes through the metal that transects the room. There are also cameras, mirrors, and other really scientific stuff that happens in here that perhaps Matt can explain more.

Here is DJ loading a sample into a magnetic tray that will move the sample around (the beam doesn't move)

Loaded sample with a camera and detector shooting on it. Just look at those coarse sediments!

This place is so big that we need tricycles to get around. Yes, I'm serious. Here we are going to get lunch at the cafe down the path.

Anyway, this is just a quick post to show you what we've been doing. Matt, Liz and I will be attending the SSSA conference from Nov. 3-7 so I think you'll get another blog post soon. 

*Audrey*

Audrey Names Fountain Pen Ink After Her Work

(Organics Studio Arsenic in a Sheaffer Intensity pen)

Hi guys, it's Audrey. I know, it's been awhile! To premise how this happened, I must say that my husband is really into fountain pens and ink. We all have our hobbies, right (mine is nail polish)? He also has a blog if you are interested in looking into it. We've been to several pen shows (yes, those really do exist) and we got to meet a new ink maker from Maryland named Tyler. Tyler is a young biochemist and is really interested in science and the periodic table, so much so that he named his first inks from it. You can purchase his inks on many popular fountain pen sites, as well as on his website here. When I saw Tyler at the Raleigh pen show a few months ago, he wanted to give my husband some inks to review on his blog. He also happened to mention that he has a grey ink he has yet to name, and I immediately tell him to name it arsenic. Since he already has other elements in his collection, it fit right in, and is an accurate description of arsenic. I told him about all the work we do in our lab, and he included the last sentence about arsenic just for me on the box.

We found Tyler again a few weeks ago at the Washington DC Pen show where we got to take a picture featuring arsenic the ink. Thanks, Tyler!