RM's+Week+of+January+7,+2008

RM's Logbook


 * Monday, January 7, 2008**

First day back in school. DL explained the tasks for this month and the next. I tried changing my powerpoint presentations into the slideshare format. However, one of my presentations is stored on a flashdrive that is not with me at the present. I'm working on the other one right now. I also e-mailed Dr. Sarveswaran to see whether we start up research tomorrow.


 * Tuesday, January 8, 2008**

The computer was very slow today; nevertheless, I changed my earthquake PowerPoint presentation into the slideshare format and put it on my main logbook page. Dr. Sarveswaran also e-mailed me back, telling me that we will restart our schedule from today. Thus, I will be at ND today. I'm not sure what we're going to do, but it will probably be making samples.


 * Wednesday, January 9, 2008**

I received a paper on the topic of our research from Dr. Sarveswaran. I cleaned several silicon wafers in the piranha acid yesterday. Tomorrow, we'll be going to the cleaning room.

Today, I'm reading the paper that she gave me. I also checked off a lot of the requirements on the best practices list.


 * Thursday, January 10, 2008**

I'm at ND today. We went into the cleaning room today. I cleaned the wafers this time, and the process went a lot faster because somebody had made a new HF bath before us. That took about 25-30 minutes. Afterwards, I made a 70% ethanol solution and a 1% APTES solution in which 2 silicon wafers were placed in each solution. After 15 minutes, I took them out, rinsed them with 18 mega ohm water, and dried them with nitrogen gas. Next, I placed them into individual containers and placed them in a special container so that I can use them next week.

This was the first time I tried soaking the silicon wafers in an ethanol solution. The increase in pH creates an NH3 group that can bond to the DNA. We'll see how it works.


 * Friday, January 11, 2008**

I updated my logbook and read a bit more of the paper Dr. Sarveswaran copied for me. For the rest of the time, I'll continue through the best practices list. I also need to read the physics book by next Friday.

Week of December 17, 2007

Week of January 14, 2008