fossilesqueWobble wobble
gilindoeslemmyI don’t get it. Can someone explain?
clifFirst frame isa centrifuge that spins samples at high speed to separate the components in them (I think that’s the purpose, not a scientist).
I hear that if it’s unbalanced, bad things happen, because you’re not spinning an unbalanced rotor at high speeds.
I honestly was coming to check the comments to see if anyone had experience with it so I could ask how bad it is.
The centrifuge would not run like that, it noticed the vibrations and turns off. They had that “feature” for decades now.
That’s awesome… And also funny that it had to be added. Thanks for the info!
I still want to know what happens on an old one without vibration detection or if it was “broken”. I assume something like an unbalanced washing machine but on a smaller scale? It just going out for a stroll :)
ehrs.upenn.edu/…/ultracentrifuge-explosion-damage…
This is a famous example from when they didn’t have alarms. The don’t just happily wobble across the room.
Ultracentrifuge Explosion Damages Laboratory | PennEHRS
On December 16, 1998, milk samples were running in a Beckman L2-65B ultracentrifuge using a large aluminum rotor (a rotor is a large metal object that holds the individual sample tubes and is connected to the spin drive of the centrifuge). The rotor had been used for this procedure many times before. Approximately one hour into the operation, the rotor failed due to excessive mechanical stress caused by the "G" forces of the high rotation speed. The subsequent explosion completely destroyed the centrifuge (Images 1 & 2).
I forget that there are large centrifuges (somebody posted about Stuxnet further down).
Or, more accurately, I’m more familiar with the small ones (ThermoFisher calls them “Mini” and “Micro” centrifuges) for ~0.5mL samples and I had a hard time thinking that those would blow out a room. But the same link (ThermFisher) that I looked at to find the names also specifies 17,000g and 21,000g models which is just… fucking insane. I knew they spun fast, I didn’t know they spun 21,000g’s fast. Learn something new every day.