Many lab devices are not only essential for advancing research, but they are also intriguing! Today, my colleague and I got help and permission to use a rotatory evaporator, owned by another group. We are going to prepare a polymer, but our monomer solution is degenerated, possibly due to oxygen and/or water. What ever the reason is, it seems that the degenerated monomers are more hydrophilic than the intact molecules, increasing their boiling point. Thus, we need only a heat bath, vacuum and condenser for concentrating most of the fresh monomer back into another flask. Pretty handy and neat device huh 😉 I really wish that one day I will have a lot of money, own or fundings, for gathering my own lab, and I could buy many kinds of handy and fancy devices there, for using them whenever I want and for whatever I need.

The Rotary Evaporator

The heterogeneous monomer solution in a heath bath, rotated by the device.

The evaporated substances condensate around this cooled tube in a big glass tube.

And we have our almost pure monomers, concentrated in another flask. 🙂

I also received an interesting book today, “9000 Years of Finnish Prehistory”. As it can be seen by reading this blog, I’m interested about my roots and, thus, about history of Finnish people. After reading this book, I’m wiser and prepared for going to seek and wonder the vast amount of different artefacts recorded in this interactive map by the Finnish National Board of Antiquities. From now on, it is good to keep in mind that just an ordinary looking pile of rocks in a forest might be an ancient tomb, or maybe the remnants of an old building! There are so many artifacts found all around Finland already, but still there are many unexplored places, like forests far from the routes (see the map). The places where I feel myself comfortable 😉

Looks promising!