Random

This is another short week for Sterlitech as we get ready to celebrate the New Year. We will be closed Thursday and Friday, and we look forward to working with you all again in 2011!

Is nothing sacred? In the news today came word that the period table is changing the atomic weights of 10 elements. Instead of being listed as one static value, the atomic weight for these elements will now be displayed as a a range that will more accurately reflect how the elements actually appear in nature.

The change is being made after decades of study and this is the first time in the history of the periodic table that any atomic weights will be altered. Measuring the variance of atomic weights is being used in real world applications for everything from analyzing food purity, to determining which athletes are using performance enhancing drugs!

The elements being changed are: Boron, carbon, chlorine, hydrogen, lithium, nitrogen, oxygen, silicon, sulfur, and thallium.

I hope this doesn't mean we'll have to memorize the table all over again...

You can read more about the change here or here.

We just got blasted with our first winter storm of the year and it was a mean one for Seattle.  Take a look at the video and you can tell that while there are many things we do well here (computer programming, watching soccer), driving around in the snow clearly isn't one of them.  Even our own metro buses can't quite get the hang of it!

Just a reminder, but Sterlitech will be closed this Thursday and Friday for the Thanksgiving holiday (November 25th and 26th. We will open again on Monday the 29th. We wish you all a safe and happy Thanksgiving!