I bought an overstock optical filter for the lab’s plate reader (Beckman DTX-880). I want to analyze Hoechst dye fluorescence (excitation 350 nm, emission 453 nm). My new filter is the right size for the excitation filter slider, but too small for the emission filter slider. That’s probably because the 450 nm – 480 nm is a  very common excitation size but not a common emission size.

So, I need to either order another emission filter and custom size it to 18 mm diameter ($500) or I need to cut a little filter adapter ($free). I need something that will hold the 12 mm filter securely and block light. I envisioned something like this made from black plastic:

So I drew up 2 layers in Inkskape. The first layer made a partial engrave of a “rim” about 1mm into the 2mm thick plastic. The second layer cut the hole for the filter and then cut the part out of the plastic sheet:

The end result worked out pretty well. The funny thing is that this laser cutter cost ~$300. So it has paid for itself already. Admittedly, it did take some troubleshooting… so maybe the cost benefit was not quite so clean. I had to replace the laser tube (which the company did supply) and I had to replace the power supply ($100). At this point I still call it a win.

There are plenty of places where rooftop solar is at grid parity. We are approaching a time when stored solar electricity will be the cheapest power available even at night. Back in 2012, I estimated the battery price that would allow 24/7 solar to be as cheap as coal/nuclear electricity. I figured that stored solar would be in range of grid parity when batteries were ~$250 per kWh. In 2013, the EIA estimated that we would reach that price point in 2040.

The future is here early. Tesla and GM/LG are quoting prices from $140 to $190 per kWh. I suspect that if we tried to roll out a lot of grid-scale batteries, the additional demand would drive up the price (if only due to lithium supply problems). That being said, if you can do it with lithium, it’s doable with other chemistry. The constraints for stationary grid batteries are different than for vehicle batteries. Size and mass are less critical than price, for instance.

When long term energy scarcity is not a problem, I feel pretty optimistic about a lot of things.

I’ve started reading the Scrum: the Art of Doing Twice the Work in Half the Time. It has inspired me to attempt to use some agile development/Scrum principles in working on my lab’s current manuscript. I think it is working pretty well. We have the first figure and many of the first set of experiments. It’s a little bit tough to think about unpredictable changes in experiments designed to cope with the reality of experimental failure. Probably the most important aspects of the scrum cycle are its ability to cut down on procrastination and the flexibility it offers to a team of busy people with other obligations. My students are all involved in classes and have plenty of work without having to know lab. If they’re working together on a shared goals, they can make progress even though none of them have an extended chunk of time to spend dedicated to a particular experiment.

Let’s get down to brass tacks: how do we measure productivity and how good can we expect it to get?

In my experience, an ambitious but realistic goal in an analytical lab is to produce one paper per graduate student per year. If this method is as good as it claims, then we can produce four papers per graduate student per year. That would suggest that my lab should produce four papers this year and as many as eight papers next year (assuming that the Allen lab can get another grad student). Suddenly that seems wildly unrealistic. Is it? Certainly it would require some more editorial effort on the part of students.

I don’t know if it will ever get that good but I can already see that what would have been three very slow projects has become one very fast project using the approaches that this book has suggested.