Tagged With: Photography

Bucket List #239: Touch a glacier

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Bucket list #239: Touch a glacier
Achieved: September 2010
Cotopaxi, Ecuador

The journey all started with a mission to conquer Cotopaxi, one of the highest active volcanoes in the world and more than a vigorous climb. At a height of 19,347 feet, it’s no wonder that many travelers struggle with the combination of the taxing sandy path and the lack of oxygen. The first half of the journey is described in the entry Bucket List #32: Climb an active volcano, and leaves us at a height of 4810 meters (15,781 ft) on the slopes of Cotopaxi, with an additional five hundred feet to ascend in order to reach the edge of the glacier. My two friends opted to stay in refuge, out of the bone-chilling, high-speed winds and drink hot chocolate. Although it felt like I was closer to naked than the three layers I had adorned that morning, it wasn’t in my power to turn down the opportunity of seeing a glacier! And so, off we went. Read more »

Categories: Bucket List, Life in Ecuador 2010 | 1 Comment

Day 65: NMR samples all in a row

Posted on March 13, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Varying relative concentrations of sample mixtures
(3/11/2012)

Busy busy busy. Research research research.

Read some Science entries, or, 

see more photos from my Project 365 here and read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 64: Centrifuge

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Mary Bedard

The centrifuge
(3/10/2012)

A big part of my research thesis that uses NMR has been getting the sample prep right. I showed the filters that I was using in an earlier post, but these were creating problems of their own by absorbing too much of my precious material and skewing concentrations. Since particles or clumps left in solution mess up the needed homogenous nature of an NMR sample, I couldn’t just forego this filtering step. And so I decided to try centrifuging the samples! This forces the suspended, undissolved particles to the bottom of the container and leaves the lovely, uniform liquid – the supernatant – available to be removed.

So, to back up a bit, what is a centrifuge and what does it do? Read more »

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Day 63: Homemade Egg Drop Soup

Posted on March 12, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Egg Drop Soup
(3/9/2012)

To continue yesterday’s baking spree of Banana Bread, I decided to try another recipe for egg drop soup. The first recipe I tried several days ago was pretty delicious, but I felt like there was room for improvement. I uncovered the recipe below, and have to say it’s fantastic. I really wish I had had green onion and shitaki mushrooms on hand, but I left them out and created a cheaper, college version for now.

INGREDIENTS

(serves 4)

  • 3 eggs, lightly beaten
  • 4 cups of chicken stock
  • 1 tablespoon of corn starch
  • 1/2 teaspoon grated ginger
  • 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
  • 3 green onions, chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon of white pepper (I used regular black pepper)
  • 3/4 cup of straw, enoki, or sliced shitaki mushrooms


METHOD

Separate out 1/2 cup of chicken stock and dissolve the cornstarch in it. Place the remainder of the stock in a pot, along with the ginger, soy sauce, green onions, mushrooms and pepper, and bring the mixture to a boil. Stir in the cornstarch mixture. Slowly, very slowly, pour the beaten eggs down a fork into the rapidly boiling soup. The egg will spread like ribbons. Garnish with extra chopped green onions, if desired.

Continue on to see more photos from my Project 365 here and read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!


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Day 62: Banana bread

Posted on March 9, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Warm banana bread with cream cheese
(3/8/2012)

As part of my lenten promises, I’ve been doing my best to be healthier. I’ve only been heating fresh, home-cooked meals full of veggies, which has included a great deal of soup. So, upon finding several over-ripe bananas on top of my microwave that I’ve neglected, I set out to salvage them in another recipe. After searching the internet and weeding out recipes, I settled on this one.

It only took about ten minutes to prep, and an hour to cook at 350°. I used four bananas, and choose to top my slices with cream cheese (delicious!). The results were quite yummy – exceptionally moist, as promised. Next time I make it I may play with the recipe and increase the butter, along the lines of this alternate recipe.

INGREDIENTS

  • 4 ripe bananas, smashed
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 cup sugar (can easily reduce to 3/4 cup)
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Mash bananas, and add butter. Add the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and mix. Mix the flour in last. Pour into a buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake 1 hour. Allow to cool a bit before taste testing.

Continue on to see more photos from my Project 365 here and read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 61: Results of gel electrophoresis

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Gel stained with Coomassie Blue
(3/7/2012)

Last week I talked at length about gel electrophoresis and the prep process using green fluorescent protein (GFP) in my entry Day 55: Gel electrophoresis.  As I mentioned, Coomassie Brilliant Blue is the most common protein stain and one of the two stains we used after running the gels last week. In addition to the gel above, stained with Coomassie Blue, we also used a silver stain. Silver staining is incredibly sensitive. When transferring the gel, you must take care in handling the gel because even fingerprints  can leave behind protein remnants that will stain.

Silver staining

More chemistry/science entries can be found under the category Science.

Or see more photos from my Project 365 here and read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

Categories: Project 365: 2012, Science | 2 Comments

Day 60: Sample prep

Posted on March 8, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Research sample prep
(3/6/2012)

So very busy with research and, despite the frustrations, seems like I’m getting somewhere! Just over a week until my California trip…

Continue on to more photos from my Project 365 here, or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 59: Trapped inside at sunset

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Sunset from inside the science building
(3/5/2012)

Continue on to more photos from my Project 365 here, or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 58: Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout

Posted on March 7, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Day 58: Bell’s Kalamazoo Stout
(3/4/2012)

While at a wine tasting with a couple friends, I picked up this stout that I hadn’t yet tried but was strongly recommended and rated highly on beer advocate. The West Burlington Wine Company is quite nifty, offering single bottles for purchase without high markup, making it easy to sample specialty beers without the need of buying the entire six pack for a taste. My current favorite has been the Highland Black Mocha Stout (rated 88 on beer advocate), especially because I tend to like chocolate stouts and, in general, I prefer stouts.  The taste is very standard for a stout, to me it tasted just like a well-done stout should taste. I thoroughly enjoyed it, although I’m not sure it beats out the mocha stout!

Continue on to more photos from my Project 365 here, or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 57: Sunset in the rearview mirror

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Driving away from the sunset
(3/3/2012)

Continue on to more photos from my Project 365 here, or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 56: Cleaning NMR tubes continued

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Cleaning NMR tubes
(3/2/2012)

Considering how research and lab work has dominated my life for the past week, it’s not surprising that my photos will continue to be lab based for a little while – spending twelve to fourteen hours in this building a day doesn’t leave much daylight for much else. I’ve mentioned before that my biochemistry research thesis centers around a technique called nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), and shown several photos of the special NMR tubes that I use. These, of course, must be cleaned and reused since they are fairly expensive. The first part of the cleaning process involves soaking them in special organic soap (Day 53), and afterwards we use the set-up seen above to finish them off. This is a farily common set-up in an organic lab, for those of you who have ventured into one, with an erlenmeyer flask secured by a ring stand and clamp to prevent it from falling due to the weight of the connecting tube, which pulls a vacuum when the water is on.

Read more »

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Day 55: Gel electrophoresis

Posted on March 5, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis
(SDS-PAGE)
(3/1/2012)

Gel electrophoresis, a technique commonly used in biochemistry, separates proteins or DNA/RNA fragments according to size or charge.  Gel electrophoresis is used over and over again in our biochemistry lab experiments, and can be applied to a variety of research. It is usually used analytically, but can also precede other characterization such as mass spectrometry or Southern blotting. For this experiment, we had previously transformed the DNA of cells so that they would produce a fluorescent protein, green fluorescent protein (GFP).

Read more »

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Day 54: Signs of Spring

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Fallen flowers on campus
(2/29/2012)

See more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 53: Cleaning NMR tubes

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Mary Bedard

NMR tubes in soapy water
(2/28/2012)

Not surprisingly, NMR tubes have to be cleaned like any other glassware. (Read a bit more about nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy here, in case you missed my earlier post.) Since I’m using humic substances (the matter that results from the breakdown of organics and is the main component of soil), you can imagine that my samples can be fairly dirty. In many ways, I’m creating expensive, quantitatively measured muddy water in a laboratory as part of my research. And so, before attempting to wash the tubes, soaking them in a soap solution is advisable. Here, I used a graduated cylinder.

Now, these tubes are quite fragile and thin, being 5mm in diameter. When placed in the filled graduated cylinder, they simply float. Even pushing them under the surface of the water isn’t sufficient to get them to sink – the small diameter allows the air to cling to the inside of the tube rather than travel up and vacate the space. In the same way, a liquid sample will not fall out of the tube when turned upside down, unless perturbed by shaking, for example. To get the tubes to sink, some liquid had to be pipetted (injected) into the individual tubes. Patches of air underwater, seen in the photo above, remained in the tubes and slowly escaped.

After the tubes have soaked, a neat little tool is used to run water up the tubes and wash away any remaining residue. Continue reading about the process here!

See more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

 

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Photos from Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

Posted on February 29, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Every time I go home to visit the family, one of my favorite adventures time and time again is to take my mother and some of the boys to the Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden. On the last visit to the gardens with Christian, a three year old,  I brought along some bubbles, which provided a great photo for my 365 project entry on day 21. Here’s the rest of my favorites from that day :)

Clicking on a photo opens it up in a new window, in a larger size

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Day 52: Back to the hustle and bustle

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Research prep: filters
(2/27/2012)

Back in the lab today! This week is a big push to finish a lot of the data collection for my thesis. I want to have the first draft of my final research thesis all written up before I leave for California – that’s only eighteen days away! March 16th. As thrilled/excited/happy as I am to be going to California so soon for spring break and to present at the National American Chemistry Society conference, there is SO much to get done before then. So, this week I am scheduled for some eighty hours of instrument time. Insanity!

So, today’s photo is a picture of a filter I used when preparing some of my samples. Read a bit about NMR here.

See more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 51: Stone Mountain Park, GA

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mary Bedard

The Confederate Memorial Carving of Stone Mountain
(2/26/2012)

Once when I was younger, my soccer team had a soccer tournament in Atlanta. When we were eliminated sooner than expected, we had a number of opportunities to do some sight-seeing. Underground Atlanta  and the laser show at Stone Mountain Park stand out in my mind from that trip, and I’ve wanted to return since. This time, on my trip with Eric, I even got to ride the skyride!

The carving area spans over three acres, larger than a foot ball field, and holds the title as the largest high relief carving in the world. Construction on the site began in 1912, but finishing touches were not completed until 1972 due to difficulties with funding and architects. The carving features President Jefferson Davis, Generals Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson.

Entries about my adventures in Atlanta, in between conference activities, can be found under the tag Atlanta trip.

See more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Day 50: Inside CNN Studio Tour

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Where the news is produced
(2/25/2012)

After my presentation for the Emerging Researchers National conference in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, the day included a tour of the CNN Studio. So much to write about, updates will follow!

Entries about my adventures in Atlanta can be found under the tag Atlanta trip.

See more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

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Arriving in Atlanta: Coca Cola World and the Georgia Aquarium (2/23/2012)

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mary Bedard

After stopping over at my parent’s for the night, Eric and I set out for Atlanta! Before the start of the Emerging Researchers National conference the next day, we set out to explore some of the attractions of the city.

Driving into Atlanta

First views from the parking deck

Read more »

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Day 49: Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM

Posted on February 28, 2012 by Mary Bedard

Presenting at the Atlanta Conference
(2/24/2012)

I would be remiss if not a single one of my 365 photos focused on the very reason I’m in Atlanta: to present at the 2012 Emerging Researchers National Conference in STEM! In the photo you can see the conference agenda, a digital copy is available here, and my nametag/pass into the conference. It was held in the Westin Peachtree Plaza, a gorgeous (and spacious) building located in downtown Atlanta. I am happy to say that my oral presentation went wonderfully, and my nervousness didn’t actually paralyze me in front of the audience. I’m so very glad that I took the opportunity to practice doing an oral presentation rather than another poster session. Talking to all the grad school recruiters was a really fun experience – unlike the majority of chemistry conferences I attend, there were representatives from biomed programs too! Exciting :)

More about my adventures in Atlanta, in between conference activities, can be found under Atlanta trip.

Or, see more photos from my Project 365 here or read about My Rules if you’re interested in starting your own!

Categories: Project 365: 2012, Science | 1 Comment