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.