Well this is disconcerting...

[leiland]

According to our ion chromatography results, the level of nitrates in San Luis Obispo's tap water is over 10 times the EPA's maximum contamination limits. And according to their own website, consumption of high levels of nitrates can be fatal in infants under 6 months. Granted, the value we got is way outside the range of our calibration curve,

Comments

[black_reaver]

So I take it feeding newborns hot dogs is ill advised?

[meliny]

You're just trying to kill me as I fight back the tirade about infants and hot dogs and parents who cut hot dogs into little circles, perfect to choke their children to death with, aren't you?

[meliny]

K, I feel better now.

[meliny]

Oh, but what I actually came here to say is that I find it perversely comforting that you make mistakes like this. At least if I'm an idiot, I'm in good company. :)

[leiland]

Yupp, you're in really good company.

The problem was an extraneous peak that threw off my peak counting. Apparently there was some kind of impurity in one of our unknowns that made the sulfate peak look like it was in the right place to be nitrate if you weren't looking closely at the scale at the bottom of the chromatogram.

[meliny]

PS We learned about myristic acid in O-Chem today. I couldn't pass that name up. I now have a WoW mage named Myristica.

[leiland]

hehe. I like cinnamic acid. And I've always liked the word anhydride.