Herb - I took my degree (Botany, Zoology, Chemistry) in 1959/60 and enjoyed
the primitive wet methods of quantitative and qualitative analysis; I also
remember simple wet-chemistry methods for determining nutrient deficiencies
in a leaf (can't remember after whom these leaf tests were named - can any
other old hand help ?). Now it seems that not a thing can be done without
an atomic-absorption spectrophotometer and gas-liquid column chromatography
(or, preferably, GC-MS) setting the lab back tens of thousands of
pounds/dollars/euros. Where did we go wrong ?
Merla - I'm very familiar with the radiation warning sign because, as lab
safety representative, I had endless struggles with our paranoid
microbiologist who used to mark practically all his glassware with it to
stop others 'borrowing' it. On the other hand, we had to balance carefully
the safety requirement to label genuine hazards, however small, against the
refusal of the garbage men to handle anything bearing a label which they
thought might mean danger.
Tony N-S.
