Good day, everyone! Hopefully, y’all are enjoying the cooler weather! It’s about time Texas gave us a break from the brutal 100-degree weather. For today’s (first) blog post, we are going to discuss some of the things going on in our very own analytical chemistry team – aka Team Ruth. I had the pleasure of talking to researchers Anisa, Teja, and Ashley of Team Heavy Metals under Team Ruth (Lots of teams, huh!?). These three have spent the last two weeks looking for, well, heavy metals! More specifically, they’ve been trying to find evidence of seven specific heavy metals in Waller Creek: Arsenic, Candioum, Silver, Chromium, Zinc, Lead, and Copper. These metals can be toxic to the creek and alter the water’s chemistry and pH balance, significantly impacting the ecosystem there.