Molding class: Day 1

The group in the classroom mounting the specimens in clay. 

Yesterday saw the completion of the first day of a fairly informal molding class held at VPL. It was organized and mostly conducted by Dr. Sterling Nesbitt, with a little bit of help from me. The class was made up of a mix of volunteers and staff from both VPL and our neighbors NPL (the Non-vertebrate Paleontology Lab), undergraduates and UT VP grad students. The day started in the classroom with a safety briefing, followed by an introduction to different types of molds, an explanation of what we were molding and why, and conversation about ensuring that one has permission to make a mold before proceeding. Then Sterling gave a brief overview of the methods that he has been using to create molds for his research program, using pre-completed examples of the distinct steps in the process. The students next selected specimens and jumped into the process, first laying several bones up in clay, then applying Aeromarine AM 128 RTV silicone. Clay work was done in the classroom for the table space, and then rubber was poured in the prep lab. Due to a previous mishap with our vacuum chamber, the rubber was not evacuated before pouring, but a small amount was poured slowly and brushed over the surface of the bones. Then, a light amount of compressed air was directed at the bone surface to spread out and thin the rubber, the stretching and popping many air bubbles. The first halves of the molds were allowed to cure overnight, and next Friday the group will return to pour side two.

Weighing and mixing silicone

This served as a pretty good test of the lab design, which is geared towards teaching medium sized groups of students paleo lab methods in a hands-on fashion. The classroom has two large tables and space for about a dozen comfortably, a projector, and blackboard, and is directly adjacent to the prep lab. The lab space is currently divided up into two rooms, the large main prep area, and small work space with a fume hood and separate sink for acid work and casting and molding. Two more lab spaces are currently under renovation from an office and storeroom, becoming a histology lab and rock saw/air abrasive lab. I feel that the setup worked out pretty well, it has been functioning as a research preparation lab quite effectively for two years, with a large number of undergraduate volunteers and grad students having been trained one-on-one already.

[Edited 6/19] To spell Sterling's last name correctly, def Nesbitt, not Nestbitt. Sorry dude!

Painting and pouring silicone

This headline says it all...

Panhandle man cleaning foot sets house on fire... from the Sun Sentinel. Ok look, I lived in Florida for a year, and I'm not going to say that it is a state chock full of rock surgeons, but COME ON!

KA-BOOOOM!!!!!!

Speaking of lab safety.... I spent the evening soldering up a copper connection between my Welch Duo-seal 1402 vacuum pump and the cheap Nalgene bell jar that was on the shelf when I got here. Now, I figured an old plastic vacuum chamber (circa 1989) might not be up to the task of withstanding the forces, so I took precautions. Namely, I was wearing PPE and had my camera handy. As the gauge drew nearer and nearer to 30inHg I grew more and more incredulous that I really did such a great soldering job in the first place and that seals weren't crumbling at all and the bell jar seemed to be holding up to the constantly increasing stresses while the tension in the room grew palpable, somewhat squishy though oddly unyielding, and as it passed 29inHg and crept ever closer, yes improbably still closer to thBAM!!!!!e baseplate imploded with a thunderous crack and blasted shards of brittle plastic far and wide (and into my noggin' and torso), and catapulted the bell jar through a series of somersaults in the opposite direction. I immediately pulled the plug on the pump, took some photos of the mess, and then flipped the camera around to see myself smiling through the face shield I was not-accidentally wearing. Damn good thing this test wasn't conducted with a pot of resin in it, eh? That wasn't an accident either, by Jove! So now, as the hour has drawn late, I plan to stop on my way home at the local tavern for an oat soda.

[Edit 6/16] A friend on Facebook asks Q: What makes the baseplate so shitty?
A:The baseplate isn't inherently shitty, just made of plastic. And plastic doesn't last worth a damn, even though we think it exceptionally clever to build everything out of plastic these days. This baseplate was probably 20 years old, and if I'd peeled up the stuck down gaskets I would have seen some crazing that wasn't visible from the bottom. I'm guessing that this is a result of not just age, but also resin fumes. Contrary to "The Graduate", plastics are not the future. They are a temporary present.

Shame on me for not taking a Before picture. This is, uh, After.

Why is it that only old guys wink any more? I think we should recapture the non-flirtatious wink.

Whoops!

Death at Yale

Back in April, a Yale undergraduate was killed in a physics workshop when her hair was caught in a lathe and strangled her. I go on and on about lab safety on this blog, in my lab, and in talks and lectures because the consequences of negligence are very real.  The Paleo Portal Health and Safety webpage was developed in part from the safety section of our lab manual, and incorporated many other lab's practices. Her accident could have been avoided by following at least three of our safety rules at VPL. First, no one but myself and our museum exhibits designer are allowed to use large power tools, including but not limited to: the bench grinder, drill press, electric miter saw, metal chop saw, Skil circular saw, and welding equipment. This by itself would have almost completely eliminated the risk of a student being hurt. Second, and obviously, all long hair, jewelry, loose clothing, etc, is required to be securely bound and out of risk for being caught in tools. Third, no one is allowed to work with any of these tools alone.

The major limiting factor in the effectiveness of these policies is enforcement. When physical access to the area can not be prevented for what ever practical reasons, tools can and should be disabled through lock out systems to guarantee that only authorized personnel can activate them. I'm very disappointed with the reaction of some members of the educational community interviewed from other institutions in the Wall Street Journal article linked above. Particularly the voices from one of my former employers, the University of Chicago. According to the WSJ article, physics professor Stephan Meyer "echoed concerns over eliminating one of the most fruitful work periods for undergraduates. 'I don't do anything during the day because I'm talking to people,' he said. 'Work happens at night and that's when research happens." Another UChicago faculty member agrees, again from the article-

"One really worries that a story like this gets the press all over it and all of a sudden undergraduates can't use the shop in the evening hours which is the only time they can really devote to the work because they're busy with courses during the day," said University of Chicago physics professor Mark Oreglia. Unfettered access to lab equipment "is something that the undergraduates really benefit from," he said. He recalled spending long hours at the machines as a student, toiling by himself on projects into the night."

My response to him? Too fucking bad. When he is in the role of explaining to a dead students parents, university lawyers, and the media why his laboratory policy was not one of "Safety First", his opinion might be changed. Working late at night, while exhausted, and under pressure is THE TIME when someone is most likely to make mistakes and cut corners. Add youth into the equation and the students are probably safer drinking and driving at 2:30am on a weekend. To defend such practices is irresponsible (I'd say grossly negligent), idiotic, and devoid of an understanding of how the real world works. This is a fundamental problem in academic culture, the real heart of the issue, safety accountability in research labs. This Nature News article discuss this in detail, and I suggest should be required reading as part of any lab orientation.

Other people do this...

I just finally got around to finishing the process not too many months ago. Labeling secondary containers thoroughly, that is. I've talked about properly labeling and storing chemicals here, here, and here, and while I don't think this will be my last post about this topic that I take pretty damn seriously, I might have said enough to last us all awhile. Unless of course, you still aren't storing and labeling your chemicals properly, then I need to keep bitching. Tomorrow's post will be about why this topic makes me so bitchy. At any rate, here we are, with today's topic, the big reveal!!! In addition to the color-coding system that I've expanded from the Sanders lab at Michigan, I've added a printed label to clearly explain what the material is, adopted from at least the Yale Peabody Museum and probably others. Why this redundancy? Well, Marilyn Fox left a bottle of Paraloid B-72 in my truck in the Chinle last year because she didn't want to take it on a plane, wisely, and looking at its neatly typed informative label had been making me feel guilty all year (yes, that means it has been in my cup holder in the center console since this time last year.)  But you want the real recap? So, color-coding creates instant recognition that these are all distinct materials, just because they are all clear liquids they should not be assumed to have the same properties or chemical structures. Secondly, this system makes it easier for new folks in the lab to remember what kind of materials they were using, kinda like flash cards. Third, the electrical tape used for labeling is very resistant to mild spills of solvent, unlike the Sharpie marker that all the bottles were initially marked with. For a period of time (until I got to it), the colored tape was used as a back-up to the Sharpie. Since handwriting is so inconsistent, and the marker was so frequently and inevitably smeared and not rewritten, and also usually incompletely labeled, I switched over to printed labels completely covered over with packing tape, a procedure which is also resistant to normal amounts of solvent spill. The label also provides a safety option for any colorblind lab workers. After all of this, I think it is highly unlikely that Environmental Health and Safety will have a problem with our storage and labeling. I'm just glad they never found last week's coffee can of kerosene.

Yes, yes, I know. This image is shit for resolution, but you get the idea.

Ultimate field vehicle...

Found it! Now I just need to find a million dollars...

Introducing the Unicat Luxury Expedition line of vehicles. I'm just gonna say holy shit!, and let you check out the interiors for yourselves. I'm in love.....

Field trailers

I've been meaning to do a post on field vehicles for some time now, but since I'm recently looking into options for field trailers, I'm going with this quick one. I'm toying with the idea of cleaning up and modifying a 13' Casita travel trailer for use in the field. Now, I've never really felt the need for one of these before, but this one is sitting out in the VPL parking lot and could use some attention, and I could use a project. I admit that I like the looks of these and these, but still, my needs are such: a sleeping bag and backpack. My 2.5lb tent if I'm feeling like I need something decadent. It can scale up from there in comfort too, but those are the basics. I had all of my clothing, gear, a few days worth of food, and somebody else's gear for two weeks in New Zealand comfortably tucked in my 85L pack with room to spare. Before I get too carried away here, I think backcountry gear breakdowns will be a different post. I'm really quite content with bare bones camping, and have always remained very comfortable in the process. These days, if I'm near my vehicle, I just push some crap off to one side and throw my sleeping bag in the back of my truck, or when that is full, sleep upright in the drivers seat. After 11 years of field work and 25 years of camping, 2010 marked the first time I had slept on a Thermarest, or any ground pad, for that matter. I must say, I do like it, but what I'm getting at with all of this is that I have a hard time justifying a need for a camper trailer for any sort of camping, let alone field work. But I want to try, because I like to build stuff, I thrive on projects, and I want to find a way to put an LCD monitor and microscope, air compressor, and dust collector in it. I may have to take out the head and replace it with a trenching tool with a roll of TP jammed onto it. I would be very interested to hear opinions from anyone with experience with such thing (trailers at remote field locations, not toilet paper and shovels.)
 [Edit 6/12: Just thought this was a nice video]

Hazardous waste disposal

Shocked to find kerosene stored in a coffee can.

Spent part of today cleaning out the last of the flammable cabinets and preparing another collection for our Environmental Health and Safety staff. To my dismay, I found several glass jars full of gasoline that had been missed on the first pass through the cabinet. I knew there were about 5 gas cans full of unleaded in this cabinet, along with two full propane cylinders, and wow-ee, we found a coffee can half full of kerosene! Yes, that marker actually kind of says kerosene on the lid. This helps to explain why the cabinet smelled so damn bad.

In keeping with UT and lab policy for Hazardous Chemical Waste disposal, I decanted the compatible fuels into a 20L Nalgene carboy that was tagged with an EHS Waste Disposal label with my name, UTID number, lab contact, building and room number, and full chemical description. You'll notice from the photos that this was done wearing PPE and working in the vent hood. All of the gas was discolored, varying from straw, to red, to brown, and had probably been bad for 10 years or more. The kerosene coffee can had begun to rust through and was leaking a bit. After draining the containers, they were left in the fume hood to vent for a while, and then closed up and replaced in the flammable cabinet. The next step in the process is filling out the Request for Chemical Disposal and faxing it over to EHS and scheduling a day for pick up. It has taken an interminably long time to get through all of this material, I've made several attempts at it over the last two years, and have sent off about 350 containers of expired, redundant, or dangerous materials for proper disposal (no, we don't pour it down the sink!) This last pickup should be the last for quite some time.

I'm melting... I'm melting. What a world, what a world...

Freeing these bottles and buckets from the bottom of the box was a bugger

This bottle of Starbond cyanoacrylate adhesive makes a succinct case for buying materials in only the quantities that you can use before they expire/self destruct. The resin has eaten through the bottom of the bottle, and the cyanoacrylate was blooming all over the surface, and smelled horrible. While initially it may seem more cost effective to buy materials in quantity, they often expire well before they can be entirely used up. Finding this bottle on the back of a shelf drives home the potential hazards of improper storage, another bottle had already leaked in a cardboard box being prepared for EHS retrieval and adhered the rest of the containers in the box to the bottom.

4th FPCS Proceedings PDF available

(I've successfully made two days of posts in a row! This is a promising start!)
Many thanks to Arvid Aase at Fossil Butte National Monument for both hosting the wildly successful 2011 Fossil Preparation and Collections and editing, along with Tyra Olstad, the Proceedings, which are now available for free download! This handy reference includes all of the abstracts from the meeting, a couple of extended abstracts, and four papers on paleo methods. Thanks again to Tyra, Arvid, and everyone who contributed!


 PROCEEDINGS OF THE 4th FOSSIL PREPARATION & COLLECTIONS SYMPOSIUM, APRIL 2011
                                                  BRIGHAM YOUNG UNIVERSITY
                                                            GEOLOGY STUDIES
                                                              Volume 49(B), 2011

                             ABSTRACTS for WORKSHOPS and ORAL PRESENTATIONS
                                                              * also an article
* Now what did the paleontologist find? Adjustable exhibits for a changing world.
Arvid K. Aase........................................................................................................................................ 1
An infinitely-adjustable work stage for precision preparation of microfossils under high magnification.
Gregory W. Brown............................................................................................................................... 1
Exercising judgment in the paleontology laboratory.
Matthew A. Brown............................................................................................................................... 2
* Vacuum molding and casting for bubble free fossil replicas.
Jennifer L. Cavin................................................................................................................................... 2
* Acid preparation of the gill skeleton of fossil fishes.
Robert L. Evander................................................................................................................................ 3
* Continued Improvements in the use of archival materials for the padded plaster jacket.
William Keyser, Peter Kroehler, and Steven Jabo............................................................................. 3
Testing the effectiveness of two commonly used consolidants in palaeontological preparation.
Jim McCababe and Rhian Russel............................................................................................................. 6
Cost effective assembly and operation of equipment to make excellent casts.
Peter Reser........................................................................................................................................... 6
Putting a fine point on it...advanced pin vise preparation techniques: materials and methods.
Connie Van Beek............................................................................................................................. 7–10
POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Soft tissue preparation in mosasaurs from the Smoky Hill Chalk.
Anthony E. Maltese......................................................................................................................... 4–5
Cut and punch: Use of a center-punch to isolate and remove small specimens from hard sediments.
William R. Wahl................................................................................................................................ 11
ARTICLES
Now what did the paleontologist find? Adjustable exhibits for a changing world.
Arvid K. Aase.......................................................................................................................................12
Vacuum molding and casting for bubble free fossil replicas.
Jennifer L. Cavin..................................................................................................................................24
Acid preparation of the gill skeleton of fossil fishes.
Robert L. Evander...............................................................................................................................29
Continued improvements in the use of archival materials for the padded plaster jacket.
William Keyser, Peter Kroehler, and Steven Jabo............................................................................33

I'm coming back, plus Jack Horner

All right, after a more or less sixth month absence I've finally succumbed to the pressure to reinvigorate this blog. The very last thing I've got time for. I just turned 30 last week, so I'm renewing some resolutions, eating better, working out more regularly, trying to get at least 6 hours of sleep a night, maintaining an abandoned web log... In order to make sure this happens, I'm going to promise to commit to at least 7 solid days of blog posts. This first one is a softball, as I'm coasting on the name recognition of both Horner and the fabulous TED Talks series.... however, this was brought to my attention by one of my rare, non-paleo friends, for the first time she brought a paleo news item to my attention that I hadn't already known about 10 years earlier!

I include this because it is an interesting talk, but also because of the MOBILE Molecular Paleontology Field Station at 8:44!!! How has this awesome thing escaped my radar?