MISSION 1: Mount Washington
In December of 2006, ARTEL scientists made their way to the top of New Hampshire’s Mount Washington, known for its extreme weather conditions. Hurricane force
winds and sub-freezing temperatures have been documented for every month of the
year. The highest wind speed in the world (231 mph) was recorded there. Mount
Washington is a great location to gather data about the effect of barometric
pressure on air displacement pipettes.
ARTEL tested three different pipettes of leading pipette manufacturers for
dispensing accuracy and precision using the ARTEL PCS® (Pipette Calibration System). A robust, portable system, PCS is unaffected by
environmental conditions. The PCS also provides standardized, NIST-traceable
results for a scientifically sound comparison of data regardless of the
environment in which data are taken or pipettes are used.
THE EXPERIMENT
For this mission, each operator pipetted 22 data points for each target volume
with each pipette. To generate a standardized comparison, ARTEL tested the same
pipettes using the PCS in their accredited laboratory (ISO 17025) under normal,
controlled conditions at sea level. The average volume dispensed at Mount
Washington was compared to the average volume dispensed in the ARTEL control
lab.
RESULTS
