Week 6

Research has pretty much stayed the same this week. Slow progress, but progress nonetheless (I hope anyway). One thing that I've found that is that when I'm performing experiment after experiment, its easy to just get lost in the repetition. I'm doing the same tests with different electrode configurations, different electrolytes, conditions, etc. Not only are there a billion confounding variables that stump me at times, but without sufficiently organizing my data, or taking some time to pause and evaluate what I'm doing, I can do a lot of work without coming up with anything useful. Every day I learn more, so I'm realizing mistakes I had previously made. I guess that's what experience is! At least I'm not as completely confused as I was the first week I was here!

By the way, our high school intern, Peter, is a genius. This happened a couple weeks ago, but he had a problem rotating and pulling his heated glass rod evenly. I would've just given up with the method entirely (sort of like I have done with anything requiring technique), but Peter, being the brilliant guy he is, brings home his glass rod and constructs this...thing made out of legos that rotates the rod, and a corresponding thing that pulls it! It's equipped with wheels, a motor, and most importantly, lots of those little lego blocks.

I wasn't a super creative kid in school, but now I definitely see the value of playing with legos!