Grace and Ben

Means resembling mica or other aluminum silicate minerals commonly found in igneous and metamorphic rocks. They are characterized by their ability to separate into thin sheets. This word was used to describe the physical texture of a chemical that I would like to make.

I broke a sample inside the EPR tonight. Everything was going so smoothly and I got some beautiful spectra. Then, when I went to take out my EPR sample, I found that it was broken in half. I was very alarmed. I didn’t know what to do. I knew that part of the instrument was still under vacuum and I wasn’t certain what to do about it. Thankfully, an experienced EPR-user was answering her cell phone on a Friday night and told me which pumps to turn off and in what order.

My postdoc has definitely been a humbling experience. In my post yesterday, I set up my computer to print to a printer. You’d think I grew up in the pre-computer era, but I started using them in 3rd grade. Yesterday, I was ready to ask for help after working at it for 1 hour and generating lots of junk printouts. However, I didn’t ask for help initially because one of the Stone lab members had written a detailed email about how to set it up and I tried to follow them to a tee, but after doing it multiple times, eventually I found the correct settings.

I’ve had to ask for help on many other elementary issues in the last five months–how and where can I print a poster? How and when can I get reimbursed for attending a scientific conference? I also had to re-learn things I thought I already knew, like how to measure pH or make a buffer or calculate ionic strength or calculate the reaction rate constant (ironic because a large portion of my Ph.D. thesis was focused on reactions kinetics).

One day at a time, but some days are downright difficult, not matter how positive an attitude I had going into it.

I need to learn to live one day at a time and be content with the little victories of each day. Today, I finally learned to print to the new Stone lab printer. This is something I thought I should have learned in June when I first moved to Johns Hopkins, but in fact, it has been a 5-month battle to get a reliable, convenient work printer. Each day, I am going to learn to be grateful for the little things I learn or accomplish. For today, it’s the ability to print to the Stone lab printer.

halcyon (pronounced HAL-SEE-YON): tranquil, peaceful, calm
resection (medical term): removal of organ, or part of organ, or tissue

A granuloma is a mass of cells which form when the immune system is trying to fight off a foreign species but can’t eliminate it from the body. It is a type of inflammatory reaction which can occur in the lungs when nanometer-sized particles are inhaled.
I read about this medical term in a chapter of Vicki Grassian’s book “Nanoscience and Nanotechnology.” The chapter entitled “Neurotoxicity of Manufactured Nanoparticles” was authored by the DOGEE seminar speaker Kurt Pennell. The author suggests that these nanometer-sized particles can cause neurological damage because the small particles can cross the blood-brain barrier.

Justine used this word in a conversation with me this morning about lignin peroxidase. I had to look up the definition of the word.
It’s a verb meaning 1) to reduce to code, 2) to arrange or systematize. I assume my brother will be very familiar with this word because it’s often used in law jargon. But apparently, you can codify scientific data.

I went to a picnic hosted by the Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering at Druid Park. It is a beautiful park and the weather was great. I can’t believe it is so close to Johns Hopkins and I didn’t even know it existed. The crabs we ate were from Conrads Crabs. I was told that the crabs probably aren’t from Maryland. I was a little disappointed. But they still look cool.