So today started off the same as yesterday, except I arrived a little earlier so I wouldn't be late. After our staff meeting, we got a great surprise: free imaging science t-shirts!!!! I got a blue one that says "we see everything" on the front. I would be the happiest girl alive if we got something free everyday :)
After receiving our awesome shirts, Nicole and I went to Dr. Hornak's office to see what we were going to be doing today. He gave us a notepad so we can begin to collect notes and data and then
we made our long journey to Building #8. When we got there, he showed us the equipment we would be learning about today: the optical spectrometer. Basically it is a "light separator" that separates light into different wavelengths. When a material or solution is placed in the machine. it makes a graph on the computer showing how much light the solution/material absorbs at different wavelengths. So to begin, we practiced with Dr. Hornak's glasses, my glasses, a cheap-o pair of sunglasses, and a polarized pair of sunglasses. Surprisingly, the polarized sunglasses absorbed just about the same amount of light as Dr. H's regular glasses.
So after about and hour and a half of measuring different materials in the lab (like plastic glove's, a microscope slide, a CD cover, Nicole's hand, etc.) we moved on to solutions. We had about 11 bottles that each contained a constant amount of Omniscan (a Gadolinium based contrast agent) and differing amounts of Copper. Using a cuvette ( which is a small rectangular shaped bottle) we put the different solutions in the spectrometer. We printed out the graph and Dr. Hornak asked us to plot the points in Excel.
But since it was just about 12, we went to lunch at Crossroads. I brought my lunch today because I'd rather spend my money on something else. When we were done eating, we went to the bookstore to see how much the lanyards are. Since Nicole and I both have 4 keys to get into labs now, we need something to keep track of them all. Neither of us had enough money to buy one, so we'll probably get one later this week.
After that, we walked all the way back to the Imaging Building to punch back in. Since we didn't feel like walking all the way back to Building #8, we decided to use the computer there to make our Excel graph. I think it took us longer to type in all the data numbers than it did to make the actual graph. As the graph showed, as the concentration of Copper increased, the more light was absorbed. The first 3/4 of the graph had a roughly constant slope; however, there was a point at which the slope increased significantly. Maybe tomorrow we can begin to figure out why the graph changes its slope at this certain point.
So on our way back to Building #8, we ran into Jen. She told us that she and Brittany would be in the lab doing some tests, and since Dr. Hornak was nowhere to be found, we decided to go see what they were up to.
We got to watch Jen put a test tube of some solution (I can't remember what it was) in the NMR machine. Like the optical spectrometer, the NMR is hooked up to a computer that graphs data, except this machine is much bigger and much more expensive...300,000$! She showed us the way to tune the NMR, which is a very important part of the process. If it is not tuned correctly, the data will be inaccurate. Then we waited 4 minutes for the NMR to "do its thing." I don't really know what it does to the sample yet, but hopefully I will soon. Jen did a few samples before she got the one she wanted... and then we were basically done for the day.
After receiving our awesome shirts, Nicole and I went to Dr. Hornak's office to see what we were going to be doing today. He gave us a notepad so we can begin to collect notes and data and then
we made our long journey to Building #8. When we got there, he showed us the equipment we would be learning about today: the optical spectrometer. Basically it is a "light separator" that separates light into different wavelengths. When a material or solution is placed in the machine. it makes a graph on the computer showing how much light the solution/material absorbs at different wavelengths. So to begin, we practiced with Dr. Hornak's glasses, my glasses, a cheap-o pair of sunglasses, and a polarized pair of sunglasses. Surprisingly, the polarized sunglasses absorbed just about the same amount of light as Dr. H's regular glasses. So after about and hour and a half of measuring different materials in the lab (like plastic glove's, a microscope slide, a CD cover, Nicole's hand, etc.) we moved on to solutions. We had about 11 bottles that each contained a constant amount of Omniscan (a Gadolinium based contrast agent) and differing amounts of Copper. Using a cuvette ( which is a small rectangular shaped bottle) we put the different solutions in the spectrometer. We printed out the graph and Dr. Hornak asked us to plot the points in Excel.
But since it was just about 12, we went to lunch at Crossroads. I brought my lunch today because I'd rather spend my money on something else. When we were done eating, we went to the bookstore to see how much the lanyards are. Since Nicole and I both have 4 keys to get into labs now, we need something to keep track of them all. Neither of us had enough money to buy one, so we'll probably get one later this week.
After that, we walked all the way back to the Imaging Building to punch back in. Since we didn't feel like walking all the way back to Building #8, we decided to use the computer there to make our Excel graph. I think it took us longer to type in all the data numbers than it did to make the actual graph. As the graph showed, as the concentration of Copper increased, the more light was absorbed. The first 3/4 of the graph had a roughly constant slope; however, there was a point at which the slope increased significantly. Maybe tomorrow we can begin to figure out why the graph changes its slope at this certain point.
So on our way back to Building #8, we ran into Jen. She told us that she and Brittany would be in the lab doing some tests, and since Dr. Hornak was nowhere to be found, we decided to go see what they were up to.
We got to watch Jen put a test tube of some solution (I can't remember what it was) in the NMR machine. Like the optical spectrometer, the NMR is hooked up to a computer that graphs data, except this machine is much bigger and much more expensive...300,000$! She showed us the way to tune the NMR, which is a very important part of the process. If it is not tuned correctly, the data will be inaccurate. Then we waited 4 minutes for the NMR to "do its thing." I don't really know what it does to the sample yet, but hopefully I will soon. Jen did a few samples before she got the one she wanted... and then we were basically done for the day.
