Blogs

So it is only Tuesday and yes, I have indeed broken my first piece of glassware in the lab... It was bound to happen, but I was hoping it would be when the lab was completely empty. Instead, the loud shattering sound was enough to bring everyone out of their offices to see what equipment had been destroyed. After cleaning up the mess, I moved on with my day, glad to have gotten that out of my system once and for all.

hey all,

brief intro of me..i am a senior undergrad at portland state university studying political science with a minor in native american studies. this summer the majority of my tasks will be tied and/or directly related to tribes. see project description* :)

This first week has been very exciting and and informative. After being bombarded with journal articles, slide shows and lectures on various aspects of my project, I began to understand the gist of it.

had finals! glad they're over...met with fellow interns and got through all the madness of "required" online policies and procedures. nirzwan and i went over some basics of what my project will entail for the summer and everything looks great..went on a tour to bonneville dam on friday and then took a nature hike up pony tail falls..by the by, if you ever want to take a tour at bonneville, make sure you request susan james from the army corp of engineers. she was the bestest!

that's all.

Qe'ci'yew'yew

(thank you)

I have had a great first week here at CMOP. It has been fun meeting fellow interns and hearing about where they go to school and what they study. I feel a little behind because I had to go back to school to take a couple of finals, but now I am ready to dive right in.

With finals just last week, this is my first week here at CMOP--a week later than everyone else, (but its such a great group that I feel at home already!) This week has been pretty exciting so far, in getting adjusted to the research I'm doing and the experience as whole. I'm extremely lucky to have such a great frontline mentor (Jim Nurmi), senior scientist (Paul Tratynek), and fellow interns (Lauren and Peter) here in lab to help me out.

This week I've learned a lot about RNA isolation from environmental samples. Previously, I had isolated RNA from chicken tissues, but the procedure for this isolation is different. My mentor, Mariya, actually came up with it on her own, which I thought was quite impressive. The protocol takes about one full day to complete; one day I observed how she did it, and then it was my turn... My trial was successful- I was able to isolate RNA from two samples. I hope that as I become more fluent in the procedure, the yield will increase.

So here goes my first blog ever! This was a whirlwind week and I cant believe that I am about to start week 2 already! Week 1 consisted of a lot of frantic running around (and flailing at times) but overall, everything was taken care of an I survived. As of right now, I am working with Dr. Craig Anderson, a New Zeland native who is really cool, and we are studying manganese oxidation by microorganisms. I have basically jumped onto a project he started and Tuesday was day one of intense research.

Have you ever wondered what laundry detergent does to make your whites whiter and your brights brighter? I spent the past week researching the organic compounds (fluorescent whitening agents or FWAs) that keep our favorite clothing looking good and their fate when they leave the washing machine. Fluorescent whitening agent is a deceptive name; FWAs don't actually make clothing whiter. Instead, by absorbing UV light and emitting blue light, they make fabric look less yellow.

Working At My Deck In The Lab

This is the first time for me as a blogger so I really don’t know what to say, but here goes…...