re: #258 EPR-radar

Out of curiosity, did these NMR systems have enough in the way of stray magnetic field that the entire room needed to be kept strictly free of significantly magnetic materials, like the medical facilities have to do with their MRI systems?

FUN STORIES ABOUT THIS.

Yes, all three have a line on the floor where they will wipe your credit cards if you bring them any closer than that. It’s about 4 feet out from the 9.4, and 15 or so for the 18.

All tools that go in there have to be non-magnetic or you have to have a really fucking good reason for this (don’t get me started on how tight the stupid knob on the dewers could be, that was a nightmare every time I needed to have that wrench involved).

Bobby pins are magnetic.

Once, during some maintenance/upgrades, the computer tech from the company got the frame for the computers too close to the magnet. Oops. Company had to come out, power down the magnet to remove the frame, recool and restart it, and verify no damage had been done. That took two months. Predated my time at grad school.

As an aside, those really unreactive surfaces that they use for lab benches/sinks don’t react well to having liquid nitrogen dumped down the drain. (Also not me, but one of the fractured chunks was kept in the grad student office as a reminder not to be an idiot.)