A Tripod for Ian
My colleague and friend, Ian Hawes, can spend half an hour diving in 0.5°C water patiently moving a mini-electrode into a microbial mat with a micromanipulator. (He prefers 3°C water or maybe even 20°C water.) However, there are times when his patience is pushed beyond the limits, for example when the geometry of the micromanipulator (attached to a stake pounded into the lake floor) doesn't let him position the electrode properly. After the last field season in Antarctica, when he couldn't measure O 2 gradients in the vertically-oriented microbial webs we found, we talked about designing a tripod that would give him more flexibility with the micromanipulator geometry. I've been working on that tripod. The idea is to have a light-weight tripod that can be placed over an area of interest and to be able to move the (attached) manipulator to measure the O 2 concentrations and pH in mat oriented from horizontal to vertical. I'm part way there with my design, particul