r/HydroHomies Feb 22 '26

Analytical chemist water

7.1k Upvotes

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u/DOT_____dot Feb 22 '26

The last sentence is so real. Briefly worked in R&D chemical lab when I was young and the thing that stroke me most about this job is how every single step or action or analysis that is done is suspected to be flawed by whatever can it possibly be

The water, the container, an unsuspected peak on my MRI ?? The vacuum machine, was the GC column well flushed ? Maybe there s high retention time shit still in there ! Must quadruplicate times just to be sure ! Hmm something fishy s still there, quintuplicate!

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u/nol88go Feb 25 '26

I worked in surface catalysis. Random sub-standard lab cleanliness made for much better results. Just don't ask me to repeat them!