Hit the ground running...

Or more jogging in my case. I began working in the lab this week and so far so good. On Tuesday we had orientation with our program coordinator. We were given tours of the mass spec and NMR facilities and we were given a lecture on lab safety. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that they didn't present the well-known display "Mary didn't were her safety goggles...now she doesn't have to". I've always thought that one was a classic. One of my good friends suggested that I use that quote and draw an accompanying picture if I was ever at a total loss on a test. Luckily, I haven't had to pull that out of my bag of tricks just yet.

I started working in the lab on Wednesday. I say that I am traveling at a jogger's pace because as of know I am just familiarizing myself with some reading material. I am going to be doing a lot of work with a computer program called Linux this summer so I have spent the majority of my days reading over the manual and practicing the various command keys. This is certainly a new area of research for me and it is going to take some getting used to.

The drugs that we will be testing this summer have already been synthesized. My project will be focused on a compound called hibiscus acid. I am going to wait to stick my foot in my mouth and do some more research before I give you all more details about the compound. What I do know is that for one of the testing methods we will have to conduct an esterification reaction. Admittedly, my organic chemistry is a little rusty, but my understanding is I will be reacting the hibiscus acid with methanol in the presence of a catalyst like sulfuric acid. I think this is going to be my chance to make my goggles shine so I plan to make the most of it!

Other than that I will be working with the OCD, VCD, and ECD instruments. In all these acronyms CD stands for circular dichroism and the O stands for optical, V stands for vibrational, and E stands for electronic. Once again I need some more learning time before I explain all of these instruments to you, but what I do know is that one of them requires liquid nitrogen. Jarral, I wish you could see the size of the dewars (containers for liquid nitrogen) they have here. If I break one of those I will go down in Vanderbilt history! They will make a plaque that says "Emily Donahue-The Most Expensive Undergraduate We've Ever Employed". I am not sure that is the lasting mark I hope to make here.

Prasad, my mentor, is holding a chirality workshop on Monday-Wednesday next week that I will be attending. Once that is over, my jogging days will have ended. I am excited to dive in and start working on the project. I'll be sure to explain all the details once I figure them out myself.

I Have Arrived

Today's date is May 31, 2010 and I have officially been in Tennessee for one full day! My mom and I turned the road trip into a two day affair. We drove for fourteen hours the first day and just a little over three hours the second day. Mapquest said that the trip would take 18.5 hours. I guess we showed them!!

Tennessee is beautiful! The landscape is so green and there are so many trees. There are some amazing gardenia trees with huge blooming white flowers. I think my mom would be tempted to move to Tennessee just so she could have a gardenia tree in her front yard. Despite her love affair with these beautiful trees, I am convinced that the temperatures in Tennessee will persuade her to stay in Colorado. It is HOT!! Ever since I was given this internship everyone has warned me how warm it will be in Tennessee. I see now that they did not emphasize the change in temperature enough! It is warmer at night here than it ever is in Gunnison! Even when it's raining, it's hot! Hot hot hot!!!! Ok, that's enough ranting.

The apartment I have moved into is much like any on campus apartment. Kind of small and a little grungy, but livable. I share a room with a girl named Austin who attends Brown University and the second bedroom is occupied by a girl named Mary that goes to MIT. They both seem very friendly and I look forward to getting to know them both. I am also looking forward to interacting with other students in the program. We have not had much chance to spend time together yet, but the welcome BBQ being held today should make it easy to meet new people.

My mother had yet another early morning today. We both had to be up at 4:00 am so that I could take her to the airport. I can't say enough how thankful I am for all the help she's provided in getting me here. The drive here would have been treacherous on my own and the moving in process would have taken far longer without her assistance. I was sad to see my mom go this morning, but I suppose it represents the beginning of a new adventure. May the ten weeks of fun in the sun (and in the lab) begin!

The name goggle lady

After reading this blog you will find that my blog signature is goggle lady. I have chosen this name because I was persuaded to begin a blog page by a professor who promised to give me a new pair of goggles in exchange for sharing my summer adventures via blog. Persuaded may not be the right word to express our agreement; bribed may be more appropriate. All the same I have been given a new pair of tortoise shell goggles and I have now begun a blog page.

In all honesty, I am very excited to have this opportunity to share my summer adventures. I leave for Tennessee this Saturday and I cannot wait for the program to begin. I have had the good fortune to be awarded an REU at Vanderbilt University doing research alongside Professor Polavarapu. For all you none science readers out there, REU stands for Research Experience for the Undergraduate. While at Vanderbilt, I will be studying drug chirality. Chirality is a fancy term for right and left-handedness. Two drugs can have the exact same components and be mirror images of one another, and, yet, still have very different effects on the body. I am sure that when I have completed my research this summer I will be able to explain this information to you in much more detail and with much more grace. In the meantime, all I can say is I'm excited for all the learning and adventures that await.

Thank you for reading my blog and I will do my best to keep it updated. Hope everyone is enjoying the summer weather!