After waking up at 5:30 in the morning to take the train into New York, I was a lot more nervous than excited for my first day. Before I even met with my grad student, he had me go to a different lab since he finally got some equipment fixed. When I got there, we cut and cleaned Silicon wafers for transistors. Of course the fire alarm sounds halfway through that, and we had to leave the building. Luckily it was just a drill.
Once we got back to the main lab I got a tour and a safety tutorial. My grad student gave me my own desk, and we went and got supplies. This is where the work started. Now that we had everything, I had to research how to synthesize metal oxide nanocrystals and decide which one I wanted to make. By the time I finished the first article on my desk, 7 more had appeared. I basically spent the rest of the day reading and meeting people in the lab.
Almost everybody in the lab asked me what colleges I was applying to by the time I decided on Copper Oxide. The lab is pretty small, so it's great that everyone is very friendly (They must have told me a million times that I can ask any of them a question at any time about anything). It's a lot of work, but everybody makes the most of it.
So what did I learn today? 1. I volunteered at one of the 3 most dangerous labs on campus 2. Half of everything in my lab is either toxic or liable to explode, and 3. If you add enough Nitrogens to anything, it will explode.
After working for 12 hours, I think I'm ready for some sleep.
-Alec
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