Last Day

This summer flew by way too quickly! My presentation went very well and I had a wonderful time learning about the other interns' summer work at the Symposium. I went to the RIT Java's for the last time on Friday and ordered a delicious Kinky Reggae. After the Symposium I enjoyed a delish lunch at Macaroni Grill with Becca and her fam and friend. When I got home I realized that I would not longer be waking up to go to work everyday. Work took over most of my summer and it was a great experience (plus i made money!!). Thank you to everyone who made this summer possible and so much fun.

Here are some important things that I learned:

1. Everything you can learn about NMR, contrast agents and transmetallation in 7 weeks.

2. NMR Spectrometers ROCK and are constantly malfunctioning and extremely breakable.

3. Dr. Hornak always has the answers and is always ready to explain them on his handy whiteboard.

4. Arrive at the morning 8:45 meeting by 8:40 or you will be considered late.

5. Becky, Lauren and I worked in the coolest MRI lab ever this summer!

6. If you're ever in building 8 and kind of hungry, head down to the basement and you will always find soda and chips in the chem lounge.

7. If you ever forget your keys to room A205 in building 76, just knock while singing the chorus of "16 going on 17" from "The Sound of Music" and Becky or Lauren will kindly open the door for you.

8. Even if its 120 degrees outside, always remember to bring a sweatshirt if you're planning on visiting 76-A205 or the NMR.

9. REMEMBER to clock in and out before and after lunch!

10. I loveeee free lunches!

AND MUCH MORE....

Saying Bye :(

Today was the last day of real work. Although I'm super excited to finally get a chance to sleep in again, I'm really sad that the internship is ending. Today we practiced our presentations in the auditorium and ate a free CIS internship program lunch for the last time. :( I created a word document called "A Quick Guide to NMR" today. Its basically a summary of how I prepared solutions, used the NMR, plotted data, and analyzed data. I hope it will be helpful to another intern in the future. I hope tomorrow goes well for everyone!

Clean Up Time

On Wednesday I finished creating my gadolinium sulfate solutions. I was very sad because I came in around one o'clock and missed the Hawaiian Party. :( I finished organizing my lab area and all of my old solutions. I emptied all of my flasks into small 20 mL containers and labeled them. I threw away a bunch of boxes, once filled with delicious snacks. Today was all about cleaning up and practicing my presentation.

Exhuasting Tuesday

Tuesday after playing tennis I tried finishing creating my solutions and cleaned up around the lab. I was working very slowly because I was exhausted and my legs were hurting a lot. It was a very relaxed day.

New Research

I came to work after playing tennis in the blazing sun. Dr. Hornak told me some new ideas for research to add on to my presentation. Today I learned that research actually does just lead to more questions and therefore, more research. There's always a way to learn about a process or substance in greater depth. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll be able to get everything done since I will be testing the samples at 5 different temperatures, which would usually take me 10 hours. I started creating my samples today, but I couldn't get very far since I didn't have a balance to weigh out 7.4681 g of gadolinium sulfate. Hopefully I'll finish my creating my solutions tomorrow and I'll test them at 20 C. On Wednesday I can try to test the samples at 2 or 3 more temperatures. I guess we'll see how far I can get before the presentation on Friday.

Undergrad Symposium

On Friday I presented at the Undergrad Symposium and it went well!! I didn't mess up at all! I was kind of nervous that someone would ask me a really complicated question that I wouldn't know the answer to, but that didn't happen. Someone did ask me a question that I didn't know the answer to, but I improvised and somehow gave the correct answer. I was really sad after the presentation because Becky and Lauren left and will no longer be working with me. :(

Practice Makes Perfect

Today seemed to fly by very quickly since I rapidly went from one activity to the next. I tested my samples and fixed my powerpoint in the morning. Next I added my new data to my mole ratio plot and realized that my previous conclusion was incorrect. We thought that zinc may be complexing, but apparently it isn't. After showing Dr. Hornak my new results, Becky, Lauren and I practiced our presentations in the auditorium. I totally improvised since I had never practiced before and fortunately I didn't do as bad as I thought I would. I then went back over to the NMR to test some more samples. I was really happy because I didn't have to refill the container with liquid nitrogen, which is a lot of fun, but takes quite a while. Tomorrow will be another busy day and presentation day!

Field Trip #3

Today was another very busy day. I went through my powerpoint slides and typed up everything that I would need to say at the symposium, but I then got confused when thinking about the zinc with omniscan slide. Something was definitely off on my mole-ratio plot. Something just didn't make sense. So I talked to Dr. Hornak about my problem with the zinc mole-ratio plot. We decided to get more data. I later went to the COS picnic and then on a field trip to George Eastman House. We learned about conservation of documents and about daguerreotypes. It was pretty interesting. After riding back in the limo bus, I tested some copper samples at 10 C on the NMR.

Busy Busy Busy

I wasn't able to get to RIT until around 1:30 on Tuesday. Although I was kind of angry that I had to come in late since I had so much work to do, I was happy that I got to play tennis with some of my friends and work on my presentation at home. After meeting with Dr. Hornak who created a cool water relaxation animation for my presentation, I went downstairs to work in my lab. I finished preparing all of the Prohance(R) with zinc sulfate solutions and worked more on my presentation. I left pretty late, but I was happy that I got so much work done. Tomorrow will be another busy day since I have to get ready for the Symposium on Friday.

Monday Madness

Today I tried to get ready for my presentation on Friday and tested more samples at 4 different temperatures. I was not able to test the samples at 10.0 C because I was not able to get liquid nitrogen until the end of my time on the NMR. I also started preparing my Prohance solutions today. I thought I didn't have enough Prohance to make all my solutions, but Becky found some more. Yay! Crisis averted!

Barfani Bogolo

On Friday I was constantly running around. The day began calm and tranquil, but then my laptop died and I forgot to bring my charger! I have never forgotten my charger before! By the way, my cousin and I have renamed my laptop Barfani Bogolo, which means snow leopard in another language, because my laptop is white, sleek, and fast, like a snow leopard! Also we couldn't decide whether my laptop was male or female, so we changed his/her previously gender specific name, Drake, to a more gender vague one, Barfani Bogolo.

After my laptop died I finished my powerpoint presentation upstairs in the computer lab. I had NMR time at 2:20, so I went to the fishbowl for a demo around 2 o'clock. I then ran to the NMR to test my calcium sulfate samples at 10 C. I only had about an hour so I wasn't able to finish all of them. :( I guess I'll finish next time!

Retesting

Thursday I worked on my powerpoint presentation for the Syposium and retested my zinc samples at 40 C. I played on sporcle during my long acquisitions and was able to name 37 presidents in one minute!

August Heat

I guess I didn't realize how hot it would be today since I have been closed up in the basement of building 76 all day. Today I worked more on my presentation, retested some samples on the NMR, listened to some old Maroon 5 songs, and played volleyball/spud in the great August heat. The sun sucked up all of my energy so I'll need to get a good night's sleep in order to be fully functional tomorrow. This is practically impossible since I have to read 300 pages of Anna Karenina. :P

Liquid Nitrogen

Tuesday was tons of fun! I got started on my powerpoint presentation for the symposium and laid out basic structure to build upon. The real fun came when I had to test my samples at 10.0 C on the NMR. I got to use LIQUID NITROGEN! It was really cool and there was a lot of clouds of vapor so I felt like a real scientist! :P I'm still trying to post the cool scientist picture of me with the liquid nitrogen, as soon as I do, you can see how awesome it was!

Abstract

Today I started, finished and submitted my abstract for the Undergraduate Research Symposium on August 13th. Becky, Lauren, and I were all trying to submit our abstracts at the same time. We were all very confused. RIT should not have used google docs for the submission process. There was a comment box at the end of the submission page and although we erased it at the last moment, we had written the following:

"Next year please do not use this form of submission. It is very confusing and stressful. Instead of working on my research, I was busy yelling at my computer. What's the deal with RIT and Google anyways? Google is taking over the world."

Its true. Google is taking over the world. [I don't really mind though since I would go insane without Google. ;)]

Long Hours on the NMR

The NMR and I are now very familiar with one another. I spent four and a half hours on the NMR on Friday! I had to miss Dr. Easton's presentation and free pizza! After my long hours, I got some really interesting data. Although zinc didn't transmetallate, it did something else entirely. My data showed that there appeared to be a negative inflection point at around one at 30, 40, and 50 degrees Celsius unlike the positive inflection that indicates transmetallation. As of now we believe that this due to complexation instead of transmetallation. I am really excited because I actually discovered something! Yay! On Friday I also learned that I can name 38 presidents in one minute!