Week ???-PK

Yeah... It's been along time since I've "talked" to you guys. A lot has happened in the past few weeks. First off, Dr. Peretz and Ms. Rodrigue came to visit my lab. I took a day off for July 4th (yay!) and am currently on a week vacation. I actually started the week vacation the day before I was supposed to give a talk with Teuta, my supervisor, and Steven, the senior undergraduate. Most people would say that good, but in reality, it's very bad. Firstly because I have to give my presentation without any help from Steven (I probably would have looked better with him presenting before or after me). Secondly  because when I come back and give the presentation, I'll forget most of what I did these past few weeks.

I have done a lot of things these past few weeks. I'm almost done with the program, I just need to edit a few lines. I've read a lot more literature simply because I am actually planning my experiment now. Based upon what I read and what I expect, that's what I am probably going to be studying. I also get to make my own primer with the help of Teuta; however, I'm not done yet. I'm really excited to start on that part of the project! Also, there's been some pretty interesting things with the results. I'd love to attach it here, but right now I can't since I need to be connected to Princeton's network.

Since my last post, I've been much better with the tricky procedure. I'm actually doing the whole procedure by myself. Teuta just does her thing and only randomly peeks in to make sure I'm not messing up any lab procedures. The only thing I don't know how to fix is the really big, complex, and expensive optical trap. It's basically an inverted light microscope that focuses light to "trap" and control small particles (less than 1 um!). It can even be used to play tetris! Too bad I don't have time for that :(

Another thing I need to do when I get back is making growth curves because I have been working with different strains and each strain has a different incubation time. It's very annoying to find out that after 4 hours of work, you can't continue because you waiting too long. So I have plenty to do in the next few weeks. I can't believe summer is almost 1/2 over!~

Peace~

-PK