Week 2: The Grass is Always Greener on the Other Side of the Lab Bench

With Dimin and almost everybody else in my lab group gone at a conference, I envied the neighboring lab group, who seemed to be busily experimenting away. Usually interns come in, spend most of the first week reading journal articles and background research, and then excitingly get to carry out their first experiments the second week. Counterintuitively, I worked on experiments the first week, and now got to read for much of the second. Furthermore, I waited for new filters to come in, so couldn’t even carry out basic tests that I planned on executing.

Monday, I read a bunch about redox probes. This included many articles that my mentor and PI sent to me. Tuesday, I had fun learning a new graphing and data analysis program, Igor Pro. Wednesday I went back to reading, studying up on COC’s (Contaminants of Concern) that relate to my project. By Thursday, the filters had come in. The rest of the week, I alternated between continued literature review, ongoing Igor practice, and the tests I’d planned. These test involved figuring out which filter to use and how to manage the absorbance tests to limit unwanted variability between trials.

I ended up embracing my independence, learning to plan out a productive week. My mentor never explicitly told me what to do, though he offered a few things to consider. In the end, it was up to me to make the most of it, and prepare for a busy, experiment-loaded week three!