The Past Week

I spent most of the past week passing DivII. I had my final meeting this morning, and my committee has agreed to pass me; however, I have to run around getting administrative things together. Herb Bernstein still owes me an evaluation, one of my evals still needs to be proofread and finalized. Once those things are done and my committee signs my new contract, I will be out of DivII.

Besides that, I was working on my Physical Organic and Organic I. Organic I took a staggering amount of time last week, occupying all of my Wednesday from 8am to 7pm. I don't anticipate that happening again, though, and Rayane has told me that it should be a 2 hour set-up in the future.

I've been looking for sources for PBDEs, but I just can't seem to plug the right words into the Google search field. I know they're out there, though, so I just have to keep trying at it. Rayane suggested going back to UMass (the program is called SciFind?) and also talking to Helaine, so since the internet is failing me, I will try those routes.

As for funding, I've asked Rayane for a sample research proposal to use as a model, which will help me greatly to writing my proposal.

More as more comes.

Good News!

I couldn't get to the science library this weekend because I'd forgotten about the Signer Seminar, which took up the business hours on Saturday, and Gin & Tonics auditions on Sunday, but I did get there today and had good luck. Paulina, one of the librarians, helped me significantly.

The article is titled "Synthesis and Characterization of Polybrominated Diphenyl Ethers - Unlabelled and Radiolabelled Tetra-, Penta-, and Hexa-bromodiphenyl Ethers." BDE-47 is tetra-BDE, BDE-99 is penta-BDE, so I'm set for the two I need the most. It is also the reference for every article I read in which the authors synthesized their own PBDEs. So the synthesis works, I just have to do it.

Ingredients
- phenol (got it)
- bromobenzene (got it)
- 1,3 dibromobenzene (either got it or can make it easily)
- m-bromophenol (don't think we have it, but I can make it or buy it)
- bromine (got it)
- copper bronze (I think we have it)
- NaOH (totally got it)
- iron powder (how could we not have it?)
- CuCl (I) (got it)

So my assignment for today is to read these procedures and be 100% sure of how to do them so I can get started in lab as soon as possible.

EDIT: Also on the slate for tonight is to finish my DivII portfolio - my committee wants final copies tomorrow for a pass meeting next Monday.

EDIT 2.0: I've also been having problems with my new lappytop, so I have to do some work on that today so hopefully I can get Linux up and running and be able to transfer everything over from my old lappy. This is probably the most time consuming thing I have to do, but at least I'm having computer problems now instead of March.

EDIT 3.0: And a follow-up from Friday's last post, I decided not to take the MCAT. It's better to get the best score I can, even if I eventually decide I don't want to go to medschool. As a good test-taker, I might have gotten a decent score, but I decided that no matter what I got I'd end up feeling like I could have done much better, and that now is just the wrong time. Also, I feel it's generally a good idea to follow the advice of the Premedical Advisor. Carin Rank suggested I take it in August, so I think I'll do it then.

Companies, Libraries and Some Other DivIII Related Things

I called HP and Dell (HP still uses PBDEs in some products, Dell doesn't) and ran into the expected problem: navigating computer companies is impossible. I managed to leave a message with the HP labs, but Dell was just not going to happen. I'm going to try some more of the companies who no longer use the PBDEs on Rayane's suggestion that they are probably more likely to donate or sell them cheap.

Tomorrow I'll go to the UMass Science Library to look up syntheses on Beilstein. It took me a bit but I did find their hours, which I'm linking here so I can find it again easily in the future.

Other Stuff
Planned Parenthood Internship: I sent off my application to PP today, and I wrote in my cover letter that I'd call to follow up next week.
Physical Organic Chemistry: I missed the first day due to EMS, but I picked up the class notes, reading a syllabus today.
Organic I TAship: I agreed to help with setup/cleanup for the Organic class, and I told Herb I won't be TAing his Physics class. He agreed with Rayane that though the Physics class will benefit more from me, I will benefit more from the Organic class. He'll probably harrass me for help anyway, but not making a commitment means I can say no. As for the Organic class, it looks like a good experience for me. I enjoyed stopping by the lab on Wednesday.
MCAT: My MCAT is scheduled for tomorrow. The earliest meeting I could get with Carin Rank was yesterday, and when I spoke to her she said I shouldn't take it this weekend, but rather next August. Now I'm stuck having to decide between taking the tomorrow and in August (both scores are sent to medschools) with the potential of getting a bad score versus not taking the test tomorrow, losing my $260 and paying another $220 for the August date. I am finding this very stressful, and I am unsure what is the best decision.

More on Companies Using PBDEs

I'm having trouble finding the companies that actually use these things. My next step is to just call them arbitrarily (I'm thinking of contacting Dell first). I have found some interesting info, though.

"The only US manufacturer of Penta- and OctaBDE commercial mixtures voluntarily ceased production in December 2004." (Environment Canada)

Connecticut has already banned PBDEs.
California and Washington have as well. (NOTE: California did not ban decaBDE, which is the most commonly used)

EDIT:Many of the "big names" have already stopped using PBDEs in response to bans in Europe. Guess I won't be calling Dell, but maybe I can find them somewhere else?

Looking for PBDEs

So today I'm looking for a reasonably priced source of PBDEs. It looks like most chemical suppliers are asking somewhere around $170 for them. Rayane suggested I call companies and ask for donations or if they'd sell me some, which is crazy enough it might just work.

The other option is that I make them, which will be very time consuming and difficult according to my current synthetic knowledge, but I think I could do it. Rayane pointed me to Beilstein, which is available at UMass and will be of infinite help if I have to go this route.

More on calling the companies later. If I have to make the chemicals, I'm going to have to get on that ASAP because it will undoubtably take me a long time to make them.

Grant Information

Ran around looking for grants today. I went down to the prez's office, it looks like the Prince Grant would apply to me, but it's a very small grant. Since I'm looking for about $1,000, I'll have to find another source of funding. I may even need more money if the PBDE samples cost a lot.

I also talked to Laurie in the NS office and she said I'm basically out of luck. Maybe I can find an external grant? ~$1,000 is so much money for me and so little money for companies. Either that or maybe Denise O'Neill will switch to the fall.

If I can't pull together the money for the project, I'm going to have to come up with something much cheaper. It would be upsetting to see this project killed before it even got off the ground.

First Meeting

The first meeting with Rayane, Elizabeth and Cindy was today. We discussed the (hopeful) direction of the project to eventually analyze breast milk samples, but mostly the discussion was geared towards what needs to be done now and this semester.

My first tasks are to find a source of PBDEs in order to test the sensitivity of our instruments here and to write a proposal. It looks like PBDEs are very expensive from chemical providers, so I'll have to do more hunting.

To Do:
- Get info about grants at Hampshire
- Search for PBDEs
- Start proposal