Actually Updating Helps

Thursday: As I mentioned a post or so ago, I contacted companies and analysis of samples is very expensive ($700-1,000 depending on the company). Rayane contacted Axys Environmental and spoke to one of their analytical chemists, who explained why it's so expensive. It is standard to spike samples with radioactive PBDEs, as somehow this helps the chemists figure out what the baseline background levels are (or maybe a ratio or something). Radiolabeled PBDEs are expensive, about $1000/mL. This is necessary because the risk of contamination is so high.

But how high is it? The chemist told Rayane something like, "A new couch in the building will contaminate your samples." So, basically, the work is so sensitive that it wouldn't be possible to get good analysis on campus, so I'd have to send my samples to an external lab, which is just prohibitively expensive.


Friday: C asks me 100 questions about my feelings on animal research. Apparently there's an opening in Professor U's lab at UMass. Prof. U works with prairie voles, which is something I looked into for my DivIII when I was in C's Comparative Animal Physiology class. Prof. U had a senior doing a project that is somehow integral to her research, but he can't do it anymore so she needs a student to pick it up.

I don't know what the project is, but I even remember talking to C about Prof. U two years ago when I was interested in prairie voles and vasopressin/oxytocin. I am very excited to find out what's open for me over there.

The bad news is that Rayane will not be on my committee if I'm working with animals, so I have to rebuild it. C will be my chair, and she's already shuffled some of her DivIIIs around so that she can fulfill that. I think I'll ask S if she wants to be my member, once I find out exactly what I'm doing.


Assignments for break:
Email Prof. U
Read Prof. U's work and any other papers she recommends
Write for C and Rayane's reappointment files
Breathe