It seems the more we find out, the less we actually know.

Over the last week Ben and I have been running experiments almost nonstop. We are testing DCQ at pH 6.2, 7.4, and 9.0. In addition to that we have one set in just water and the other with hydrogen peroxide to see if DCQ reacts with H2O2 when it is supposed to just react with HRP to react with TCP. Each run on the HPLC takes about four hours to run usually. But as predicted, the DCQ at pH 9.0 with H2O2, the reaction went incredible fast and DCQ was gone after 21 minutes. I was worried that it would be to fast to even get a reading in the HPLC at all.
There is definitely a some evidence here of pH dependency but it's not at all what we thought it would be. Theoretically pH 6.2 should be the most stable pH but it doesn't appear to be that way. So now it is exactly like the title of this blog. And we have to take a step back and look at this and know when to stop and publish something then continue. But for the time being the HPLC is keeping pretty busy and will be for the rest of the week.

Life without Brad

This past week of research, Brad went on vacation. While I took some time off I still came in and did some work. It was interesting working without Brad being around. He has been micromanaging us and without out him around to do so me and Ben had to make some of our own decisions and do some problem solving on our own. It was great experience as an undergrad cause once you get out into the real world you will have to make your own decisions and decide things for yourself so I took this as a learning experience.
Also, I have been working on a paper(really informal) about TCP going to DCQ. A copy of this paper will go to the head of the North Carolina chemistry department because we are doing some similar things. And also none of his research students wanted to do HPLC work and it worked out cause I had most of the stuff he wanted to do already done. Not as exciting as other things perhaps but it's part of doing research and this is a stepping stone to gettin published which will help me alone when it comes time to go to Grad School.

Nerds on the Run

Last week was a pretty interesting week for the B3. I spent the first part of my week looking at a ton of data, sorting it, making it look nice, and putting it all in one graph for easy comparison. After about two days of looking at the data and discussing the data collected, we went on a little break in town. We went and visited another professor of Monmouth who is head of the Education Department at Monmouth.(Sorry I am terrible with names and have a hard time remembering them) Who actually is about one year into bee keeping. That's right he keeps honey bees. This was pretty educational for all of us learning that different breeds of bees work differently and at different paces. And actually the whole process is pretty easy to do. Just collect your free honey once or twice a month, depending on the bees, and enjoy! This actually made me want to get some bees and get some honey of my own. What is misunderstood about the bees is how docile they are, and that could be depending on the breed of the bees. We even talked about the safety equipment and the professor didn't believe in it. As long as your slow and gentle the bees will leave you alone. We even talked about why bee keepers always wear white. Well I guess dark colors like black could make the bees think there is a bear trying to get there honey. Guess who wore black that day.
Also last Friday we took a little trip to Madison, Wisconsin to visit Om a student from Monmouth who is doing at REU in Madison. It was really neat because we actually got to see an NMR machine which is interesting because we read about them in books and learn to read the print outs but its neat actually getting to see one. But you can't get to close cause it can mess up your electronic devices as I found out. But it was all worth it. We even got to see a 900 NMR which are pretty rare in the world and for pictures see Brad's Blog.
I should talk about why I chose the title I did. Well as we were driving, on the four hour ride, we were listening to a podcast called basic brewing radio which talks about brewing and the methods and different techniques. Well my title came from us because we kept stopping the podcast to discuss the science or chemistry of what is actually happening. And Brad was the one who stopped us and said, "Good thing nobody is around to hear this. They would think we are a bunch of nerds." We all had a good laugh at it and new it was true. But even with that comment we kept stopping the podcast every once in a while and talking science about little things most people would never think about. It was fun though and educational. Maybe not for everyday life but it was fun for us.
Later on that day we went out to a hop farm in the country. And none of us realized how much went into this kind of farming. It was interesting as well cause the head farmer, if you will, actually has a science background and used to teach. So he could actually speak to us on a scientific level and explain things to us in a better way. It was a really great experience because you don't think how much science can go into these things of everyday life and as we learn these things we are expanding out minds and now thinking on a different level. So, in my opinion, this Liberal Arts in a way but a way more geared towards a specific focus. So these little side trips that get us out of the lab and get us a break from the data have been educational and not just something to give our minds a break. We are still thinking but thinking about something else. So with these little trips you wouldn't think could be related or broken down to a science have made us Nerds on the Run so to speak.