Stephen Panos

Recent Posts

Contaminants in your lab? What you should look for.

July 21, 2021 at 8:15 PM / by Stephen Panos

If you are processing environmental samples then you’ve probably dealt with contamination at some point. If you haven’t, then you should be congratulated for creating the only laboratory on Earth that has ever been completely free of all sources of contamination!

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Question and Answer Time with EPA Method 8270

December 7, 2020 at 1:53 PM / by Stephen Panos

EPA Method 8270 is one of the 8000 series methods that outlines the preparation of wastewater samples. It is one of dozens of methods for processing wastewaters for semivolatile organic compounds (SVOCs), all of which fall under Method SW-846. Expand the graphic below to see the breadth of the method.

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What’s Your Grade? I’m usually ACS, although sometimes I’m Reagent.

December 4, 2020 at 1:54 PM / by Stephen Panos

If you’re reading this and raising your eyebrows, you’ve never had, what I like to call, the “grade discussion.” I don’t mean the discussion between high school or college students who are comparing grades after a big mid-term or final exam (although I used to do that too). I mean the discussion over the solvent grade you use in your laboratory.

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What does a thermistor do anyway?

November 30, 2020 at 3:13 PM / by Stephen Panos

It is easier to understand something when you know what the actual word means. A thermistor is a portmanteau (yes, sometimes I do pay attention to linguistics) of the words thermal and resistor. This means that when a thermistor is heated, its resistance is either increased or decreased based on the properties of that particular thermistor.

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