Week 2

This week was different. For starters, I felt my first 80°-day here. It was wonderful at first but surprisingly, I started to feel really hot. I felt like I was home again. It made me think of how weird it’s going to be when I go back home. I actually might miss the cold.

I read fewer papers and actually did some lab work. I learnt how to use a UV/Vis scanning spectrophotometer. This machine measures the amount of light is absorbed or transmitted through a solution. We found out the absorption rate of detergent on solution. On Thursday, we went on a trip to the main OHSU campus. I found the trip very entertaining. That was the biggest school I had ever seen! Later that day, we went to a forum that discussed pharmaceuticals and personal care products in the Columbia sediments. I thought that the talk was educational because, though there was no major mention of acetaminophen, it covered the basis of my summer research. On Friday, they held the first brown bag talk with Dr. Paul Tratnyek and Lydie Herfort to discuss ethics and plagiarism.

This week ended with a trip to the zoo; my very first time at a zoo. I loved it. I got to see so many animals that I have only seen on television. It was a wonderful experience that I wouldn’t mind repeating.