Deadlines.

With everything coming to an end in the next couple of weeks, I am trying not sweat the small stuff. My honors calculus project was pushed to Monday was moved to monday, and I have just over a week to finish my final research paper and create a powerpoint presentation for my unknown project.  I don't know how it is all going to come together, but I am confident that everything will work out the way it should.  Outside of being a big ball of stress, this semester is going well.  I am somehow managing to squeeze out another 4.0 for this semester, my non profit is doing very well, and I still have found time to work one day a week at the bike shop,which to be honest is more of a break than anything.

The honors project I am currently working on involves Newtons Method.  Below is a fractal image that shows a solution for f(x)=z^3-1 or z^3=0 when solved with Newton's Method.

Almost there!

It looks like my gene gun experiment will be more of a long term project, seeing as I will be doing my internship off campus next semester.  I am hoping to squeeze the project in during some "free time", that I may or may not have next semester.  I got the results of my research paper rough draft this week, and man, do I have a lot of changes to make.  I have been putting in some extra hours trying to crank this out, so I can concentrate on finals during the last few weeks of the semester.  A few classes are coming to an end which will leave me with more time to devote to this research paper and presentation for S-STEM.  Keep it up everybody, it's almost over!!!

S-STEM

This past week has probably been my most difficult week this last semester.  Trying to tackle all of my classes course work, preparing my honors calculus project for submission, S-STEM research time, I cannot seem to get everything done.  I am trying to take it one day at a time and overwhelm myself anymore than I already am.  hehe.

ON TO SCIENCE!!!

I am still waiting for parts to finish building my gene gun.  The excitement keeps building as more and more of my supplies are delivered.  Hopefully I can build a prototype by the end of the semester, which I will be able to expand on next semester.  As stressful as it has been, I actually got a lot of good experience when I was preparing a research paper for my Unknown project.  I mostly learned what to do, by all of the things that I didn't do while conducting my experiment.  4 weeks left in the semester.  Time to finish strong.

Redding Lab at ASU.

As some of you know, I am currently working on a gene gun for the Biosciences department.  As of last week I had little to no idea what I was doing, but thanks to a close friend of mine, that changed this week.  This friend is currently getting his PhD in biophysical chemistry and uses a gene gun on a regular basis!!!  As an added bonus, theirs is "homemade" as well, and the design of was incredibly simple.  A tank of helium gas was connected to a solenoid, which is controlled by a timer with a trigger.  The solenoid is then attached to some brass fittings, which eventually connect to a filter holder that houses the inoculated tungsten dust.  The filter holder is pointed inside of a container.  This is where the science happens!  Inside of this container, genes are shot into living organisms.  To avoid experiencing a deafening noise, a vacuum is attached to the container which essentially sucks out the high psi shot of gas that is delivered into the container.  

Part of this process is the preparation of a microcarrier.  The microcarrier will betungsten dust that is carefully prepared with a plasmid.  My friend Chris was also able to supply me with the protocol that his lab uses when preparing this dust.  Now I wait for all of my ordered materials to show up, and we can get this show on the road!