00:00:30 I look at my world. Sky, water, earth. Things animate, things inanimate, and wonder. What

00:00:48 is it made of? What are the binding powers of the building blocks?

00:00:58 I look for purity, and as I approach it, I weigh, measure, determine properties and characteristics.

00:01:07 I isolate and look for clues of identity. I classify, fix it with name and number to

00:01:14 recognize it, to understand what it is, to create a standard. Peeling away the layers

00:01:21 of surface reality, I see myself in the matrix of nature.

00:01:52 I look at matter, dynamic, changing, mass and energy in constant motion through time and space.

00:02:02 Structures, substructures, superstructures, and from this orderly maze, I determine a

00:02:12 baseline to form a comparison between my standard and the unknown.

00:02:22 Why I'm the mad scientist, the alchemist, seeker of the philosopher's stone, medicine

00:02:47 man, bubbling glassware and magic black boxes.

00:02:52 I am the humanist, familiar with man's environment, the determiner, to control,

00:03:15 utilize, preserve, eliminate.

00:03:24 The music of my life is pure and concrete. I want to know, have to know more about something

00:03:30 than anyone else.

00:03:45 What has been done? What's being done? What can I do? Where can I go from here?

00:04:03 How can I measure it? What will it do? Will it fluoresce, form a compound?

00:04:22 What volume is necessary? Time for reaction, temperature for reaction,

00:04:30 pressure for reaction. What are the limits?

00:04:43 How does my method compare? Is it better, more exact, more economical, faster?

00:05:00 Music

00:05:15 My work is my life. I must be the expert in my field.

00:05:20 My standard's purer, my method's accurate.

00:05:24 Break it down, put it back together, and still it stands up time after time.

00:05:30 Music

00:05:52 Music

00:06:03 My results are higher, more consistent, more reliable. I am the expert.

00:06:10 Music

00:06:22 Music

00:06:29 Dr. Tilly, Dr. Tilly.

00:06:32 Music

00:06:42 Music

00:06:47 Mr. McKinney, history in this car?

00:06:48 No, this time it's the last in the restaurant.

00:06:57 How's the pressure?

00:06:58 120 over 70.

00:07:01 We'll need some blood for glucose and electrolysis.

00:07:05 Okay, right away.

00:07:06 Music

00:07:29 Ask chemistry to get the slide results back to its staff, please.

00:07:32 Okay.

00:07:33 Music

00:07:43 Music

00:07:53 Music

00:08:03 Music

00:08:11 Music

00:08:19 Okay, let's give him 50 grams of dextrose.

00:08:22 Okay.

00:08:23 Music

00:08:35 This is a sample taken from a wall in an old home.

00:08:38 It's the wood with the paint over the top of it.

00:08:43 Around the turn of the century, the paint fuse had a large component of lead oxide in it.

00:08:47 And children, unfortunately, find it attractive to eat.

00:08:50 They ingest quantities of it, develop lead poisoning, and even die from this.

00:08:56 We're interested very much in analyzing the paint with small portable analyzers.

00:09:01 But to establish a baseline, in other words, to decide what kind of sample we're really working on,

00:09:06 we thought we'd have to have some sort of microanalysis done

00:09:09 to know what is present over our lead oxide layers.

00:09:12 The object here is to cut off a piece of the paint,

00:09:16 such that it will stand vertically in an epoxy melt.

00:09:19 This gives us a cross-section, such that I can get the electron beam

00:09:23 going across from the older into the newer paint.

00:09:28 You have to pair the sample, and this will involve polishing it to an extreme flatness,

00:09:35 Everything in the periodic table,

00:09:37 each element has its own characteristic X-ray line.

00:09:44 What I do is generate a beam of high-energy electrons

00:09:47 and focus it onto the face of the sample.

00:09:49 They diffuse into the sample.

00:09:51 They ionize atoms, and then they go to the top of the sample.

00:09:55 That's what we're looking for.

00:09:57 I'm going to use a high-energy electron,

00:09:59 and I'm going to focus it onto the face of the sample.

00:10:01 They diffuse into the sample.

00:10:03 They ionize atoms inside the sample.

00:10:06 These ionizations will produce X-rays.

00:10:10 By doing energy dispersion on these X-rays,

00:10:15 we can identify the elements present under the area of impact in the sample.

00:10:23 Okay, let's put your sample into the instrument.

00:10:25 I'll pump the sample chamber out to an operating pressure,

00:10:29 which will be shown by the needle here reaching the red mark.

00:10:33 At that point, I can give you an electron image on this oscilloscope screen,

00:10:38 and this will be the actual area that we'll be analyzing.

00:10:43 Okay, here's the area that we'll be analyzing,

00:10:47 80 by 100 micrometers.

00:10:49 The major elements that we'll be looking at

00:10:52 are titanium, barium, and there it is.

00:10:57 There's your lead.

00:11:14 Well, ma'am, this is the last muscle sample from the screen.

00:11:18 Well, ma'am, this is the last muscle sample from the screen.

00:11:21 The results seem to be pretty much in line

00:11:24 with that taken from water and sediment.

00:11:27 Our data seems to show that the environment in Alaska is really clean.

00:11:31 Let's hope it remains that way in the future.

00:11:41 Glad that we switched to the muscles

00:11:43 and stopped running the small Macomba clams.

00:11:47 They were really a pain.

00:11:51 Yeah, it's a lot easier to shuck the muscles

00:11:54 than it is to handle those small clams.

00:11:57 I hope the data we get on these muscles

00:11:59 matches the baseline data we've gotten on the water and the sediment.

00:12:02 I'll add about 600 cc of water to each of the flask here.

00:12:08 Okay, I'll start on the internal standard edition then.

00:12:12 Okay, have you got the ultrasonic probe ready?

00:12:15 Yes, I'll put it in.

00:12:19 You ready to go?

00:12:27 I've got all the columns. Do you have all the flasks set up?

00:12:30 Yep, they are ready to go.

00:12:31 Okay, this is the first column.

00:12:33 Now, two hours at room temperature, we ought to get out

00:12:37 the aliphatics.

00:12:39 Some of the aliphatics also.

00:12:41 And then the second two hours, when we heat the flask,

00:12:44 we ought to be able to get out the remainder of the hydrocarbons of interest.

00:12:48 Plus, at the same time, we'll get out the rest of the

00:12:51 muscle baseline data, which has to be subtracted

00:12:54 from the hydrocarbon baseline data.

00:12:58 How does it look?

00:12:59 I'll make sure the nitrogen is on.

00:13:01 Check and see if all the joints are sealed.

00:13:06 You ready for number one, Harry?

00:13:07 Yep.

00:13:08 Okay.

00:13:09 Okay.

00:13:11 Flow's on.

00:13:12 How's it look?

00:13:13 Oh, about five and a half.

00:13:15 It's still climbing, though.

00:13:20 Okay, I'll set up the gas chromatograph for analysis.

00:13:23 Why don't you set up the computer for data acquisition?

00:13:25 Okay, I'll get it.

00:13:27 Okay, liquid nitrogen's going on the column.

00:13:30 And I'll start heating the 10X now to

00:13:33 dissolve the trapped organics.

00:13:36 Okay, start the data acquisition.

00:13:38 I guess that is one problem of

00:13:41 doing a baseline study, especially over

00:13:44 a reasonably limited period,

00:13:46 that everything is constantly changing

00:13:48 and we're working in a dynamic system

00:13:50 so that we will not be able to

00:13:52 to say confidently that what it is this year

00:13:54 is definitely what the baseline would be next year.

00:13:59 Last muscle sample from the spring.

00:14:01 The results seem to be in pretty good agreement

00:14:03 with that taken from water and sand.

00:14:05 Our data seems to show that the environment

00:14:07 in Alaska is really one of the

00:14:09 few really clean environments remaining.

00:14:35 I look at my world.

00:14:50 Things animate,

00:14:52 things inanimate.

00:14:54 And I see process,

00:14:56 an underlying relationship

00:14:58 of matter and energy

00:15:00 creating a dynamic structure

00:15:02 of which I am a part.

00:15:04 Bound by my work.

00:15:07 Everything I am,

00:15:09 everything I do,

00:15:11 affects this process,

00:15:13 is affected by this process.

00:15:15 And I become the first link

00:15:17 in the chain that aligns

00:15:19 man with the natural order.

00:15:29 This is the key.

00:15:31 My understanding,

00:15:33 knowledge and skill

00:15:35 reveals the natural order.

00:15:37 And from this process of order

00:15:39 emanates balance.

00:15:44 I discover the means

00:15:46 to channel the flow in medicine,

00:15:48 environment,

00:15:50 in process and products

00:15:52 that improve and fulfill man

00:15:54 as an inhabitant of this universe.

00:15:58 Standing at the leading edge of tomorrow,

00:16:00 I chart the baseline

00:16:02 of reality.

00:16:04 And it is myself.