Of Course You Can Use The Instrument

A colleague sent an email today asking if he could use instrument X to test sample Y.  For some reason, the email activated my obnoxious side.  I told my colleague that asking the testing question was similar to asking "can I sue someone?"  The answer is the same.  You can always sue someone (at least, in American courts), the better question is whether you'll win.  The same thing applies to instrument testing.  You can always put the sample on the instrument; whether you get good data is another question.