Week 5: Listen to What I Mean, Not What I Say

Half way through a 10 week internship, it’s easy to get stuck in the rut of data collection. With the allure of producing data and tangible results, it’s no surprise that everything else is forgotten. My presentation Thursday went well. It served as an excuse to get out of that data rut. For example, I created my first presentation-quality graph. I re-read some background papers, and reminded myself of the objectives of my project. Far less is learned by collecting the data than is learned by explaining it to others, so I'm glad I had the opportunity to present my research. Presenting science to a broadly disciplined audience can be a difficult, listen-to-what-I-mean-not-what-I-say sort of experience, but it is rewarding. On top of that, I learned about exciting projects that other interns are working on.

Two new probes – AQS and AQDS – came in this week. Mixing up proper concentrations, adjusting pH to appropriate levels, and running the full oxidized and reduced forms through the UV-Vis spectrometer took a while. Between that, running gas chromatography for the carbon tetrachloride, and preparing for the presentation, much of the week was gone before I knew it. On Friday, I made calibration curves for the two new probes.

This coming week, I plan to test the AQDS (one of the new probes) with some iron oxides that I tested with the first probe, I2S.