Day 5

Wednesday October 5, 2011

Today was the most interesting day so far. We started by finishing our nanoparticle project from yesterday. While finishing up, we learned more in depth about nanoparticles. Nanoparticles are positive charged because it helps when interacting with the cell which is negatively charge. The more positively charged the particles are, the easier the interaction becomes. Also, the size of the nanoparticles is important. Only a certain size can fit through the cell membrane which is less than 200 nanometers. Ours were about 1,000 nanometers which was a little too big. Once we finished that project, we watched our mentor do a lab. He kept using this machine that precisely adds water to a solution to dilute it to the desired amount. It was also known as a syringe pump. However, he tried this process several times, but for some reason, the machine wasn't working. Next time, we will get to see what shape the cells formed. Afterwards, our mentor, JM, showed us different lab journal and explained how to properly keep one. He showed us examples of graduate students' journals and under graduate students' journals. Surprisingly, the under grad. students' journals tended to be neater. Then, JM introduced us to this website called PubMed. This website had thousands of different science related journals on almost every topic imaginable. It was really outstanding. Next week, I will be going with my real mentor for the first time on Tuesday. I’m excited to start my real project!