Modestly Expensive Science

Modestly Expensive Science

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Sometimes you just have to spend some money to solve a problem. One good thing about living in the 21st century is that in certain areas, technology has made advances that seem to prove Arthur C. Clarke's projection.



One area that has benefited in this way is small scientific instruments, especially those that deal with light. The enormous increase in capability and reduction of cost in computers and fiber optics in the last decade has meant that certain measurements that were only available to universities and large corporations can now be used by small groups and individual investigators. What cost $20,000 or more in the '70s can be had for under $4000 today. In fact, what you can buy for that $4k simply didn't exist in any form to the most well-funded group at that time.

For a specific example, I began to make real progress on reconstructing aura goggles when through luck and perseverance, I obtained two things:

1. A genuine pair of antique aura goggles to analyze, and
2. A Jenway 6320D spectrophotometer

The Jenway was only $1700, but it did not do scanning. It was computer controlled however, so I wrote software to perform the spectrum scans. Using that, I was able to perform the world's first spectral analysis of aura goggles, published on this website.

Later, I upgraded the spectrophotometer to a Jenway 6205 UV/Vis, also computer controlled. This model does scanning natively about 30 times faster than the 6320D, with 5 times finer increments, and 30% better system bandwidth. That instrument was about $3500.

Without a doubt, I could not have designed my new aura goggles without the spectrophotometers. They provided solid answers to questions that were not available by any other means.

Of course, $3500 is a lot of money. But it is not an absurd amount, especially if you are willing to plan and save up for it over a period of time. People routinely spend much more than that on cars, campers, motorcycles, and TVs. It depends on your priorities in life.

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Spectrophotometry

Here are some good basic tutorials about spectrophotometry, including some of the common pitfalls. They were written by David R. Caprette of Rice University for the undergraduate program in biochemistry.

• Principles of Spectrophotometry
  • Colorimetric Assays - Setting up a standard curve
  • Protein Absorbance Assays
  • Extinction Coefficient