This and That
Chalk Talks: To be honest, I wasn’t too thrilled at first about having to duck out of lab for an hour and a half for four days straight. Man, I was wrong. So many of the projects the other fellows are doing are amazingly interesting. There were many times that Suzanne and Alex had to cut us off because we had lost track of time asking progressively more and more complex questions about the research being presented. I’m sure summing up a month’s worth of research into 8 minutes makes projects seem more interesting than they seem most of the time, but still, I was astounded at how involved in and excited by their respective projects everyone was. Rock on guys. I can’t wait to see the final posters…
Finally, results: It’s a great feeling to finally be able to look at a graph of the data I’ve been collecting, it means I’m making headway. It’s great, but at times, frustrating. I’ve learned that not all data is viable data. I have to be sure that the results I get can be reproducible, which means they are large enough in sample size as well as have a low enough standard deviation to not be the product of chance. For someone who hasn’t taken stats yet, this is somewhat of a daunting task. I first noticed something was up when my results indicated that dead worms were coming back to life. I guess relevance is everything! Still, I feel a sense of accomplishment when I look at my Excel sheets and see what I have accomplished on paper.
My First Lab Meeting: As I’ve mentioned before, my lab is small. There are five of us: My PI, Dr. Ryan Baugh, my lab manager, Brenda, a grad student, Yutau, another undergrad, Ilka, and myself. We all have pretty good ideas of what everyone else is working on, but Dr. Baugh thought it would be a good idea for Ilka and me to present our research as practice for the real world as well as the poster presentations at the end of the program. We’re planning on doing it the Monday before the program ends, which will be great for bouncing our ideas off of Ryan before our actually projects are due.
Outside of Lab: My schedule and PI allowed me to head home to Massachusetts for the weekend to see my family and friends, who I’ve missed seeing since being here. After a lovely 3 hour delay at JFK due to fantastic Boston weather, I finally made it home to surprise my Mom and twin brother, neither of whom knew I was coming home. The night of the 4th was a blast, and among other surprises, I managed to get pretty nasty poison ivy. I got back to the apartment late Sunday night, slept well, and returned refreshed for lab in the morning.
I think that’s all that’s new for me for now. Who’s pumped to go see Harry Potter next week? Ah, may we never grow old.
Until next time,
Tucker
