First Day!
finally got all my forms turned in, all my online registration things filled out, and started messing with chemicals today. only took me a semester to get myself (mostly) figured out. this lab is a lot different from my undergrad experience – tons more people, way more space, and quite a bit more disorganized (to this obsessively-organized eye). it’s gonna take some getting used to – having tons of unlabeled vials and mysterious objects lying around. it’s so much simpler (if more lonely) working in a group of one. i may have had a mess in my lab, but at least it was all my stuff, so i knew what things were.
anyway. started off slow(ish) today. got a few review papers from my post-doc research ‘guru,’ which i spent about 3 hours reading (i’m super-rusty both in reading science journals, and in focusing for that long). finished up just in time to set up a reaction before group meeting. left it on the filter frit to dry overnight, so i’m not sure how the yield went. the stuff was supposed to stir for 6 hours, but it only ended up going for 3.5 … had to leave before i was stranded in the lab overnight (first time i’ve had to catch the last bus home, by the way). oh, another first – worked with bromine for the reaction. it’s super-heavy and it made me nervous to work with it (with how it did the whole reddish-brown fuming thing). and now i’m getting too tired to carry on this train of thought. hopefully i’ll be able to keep up this journal better than i managed when logging my undergrad senior research experience…
