AL's+Week+of+January+7

AL's Logbook

__1/7/08__ - Today I went through the first part of the [|particle adventure site], looking at the basics of particle physics. The basics include the fundamental questions that physicists ask in researching these particles such as "What is the world made of?" and "What holds it together?". These questions are necessary in discovering different fundamental particles. It was originally thought that the atom was the fundamental particle, but it was found that it was actually made up of neutrons, protons and electrons. Electrons are fundamental but neutrons and protons are made up of even smaller particles called quarks which are now thought to be fundamental, meaning they can't be broken down into smaller particles.

__1/8/08__ - Today I continued to go through the particle physics lab and started to look through my information for uncited material. After school, I went to the lab for the first time since the end of Christmas break. At the lab, I talked to Dr. Sarveswaran about my past results and where I will take my project. I watched Renula practice cleaning the silicon wafers so that we can take them to the clean room to destroy and smoothly regrow the oxide layer on the silicon by giving it RCA 1 and 2 baths as well as giving it an HF bath.

__1/9/08__ - Today I continued to look for and document images and information that need to be cited as well as linking to outside sources next to the information, or atl least knowing where the images are from, as some of them I used so long ago, I've had to search for them all over again. On top of that, I looked over more of the particle adventures site, going over the history of the atom as it has been discovered by scientists and how the proton and neutron were discovered. Aside from that, which I've already read, I looked at the particle page on [|"Unsolved Mysteries"] such as matter and antimatter and whether or not quarks truly are fundamental in the sense that nothing makes them up.

__1/10/08__ - On this day I went back to the particle adventures site and went through the first few articles on [|"What Holds It Together."] I read the first article on talking about the four fundamental forces or interactions that hold particles together. These interactions are gravity, electromagnetic force, strong force, and weak force. The 2nd page under "What Holds It Toogether" discusses not only what happens to particles, but what happens between two particles such as between two magnets. At the lab today, Renula and I deposited the APTES solution on our cleaned silicon wafers, before we deposit the DNA.

__1/11/08__ - [|Electromagnetism] is the force that causes atoms and molecules to react with one another by causing a repelling interaction between same-charged ions and an attraction between oppositely-charged ions. The [|nucleus] of the atom is made up of protons and neutrons, but what force holds them together? The particle adventure site calls this force [|strong force]. These are the main articles that I read in class this day.