How do you measure what you can’t see with your eyes? That is what my role as an analytical chemist is all about! There are many things we as humans want to measure, like the amount of salt in the ocean, or how much sugar is in a lolly, which we can’t do by simply counting. We have to find other ways of measuring them.
On paper it seems pretty simple: I take the sample to the lab, put it into a big, highly expensive machine (or an ‘instrument’), and it will tell me the answer. But it gets more complicated than that. For example, if I wanted to measure how much vitamin C is in orange juice, I can’t just pour the juice straight into the instrument. I may have to first remove any pulp, or add a chemical to preserve the vitamin C. It’s my job as a scientist to figure out the best way to prepare my sample so I get the most accurate answer from my instrument.
Growing up, science was one of my least favourite subjects. But I had awesome teachers in Year 11 and 12, which made me fall in love with chemistry and the satisfaction of learning tricky concepts. Now I am researching new ways we can measure pollution within nature, even when we can’t see it, to better understand our impact on the environment. I like working every day in a lab, and knowing my work as a scientist is making a difference!
