Just Crush It

Did I ever think I would spend my time crushing butter-mints…not quite.

No longer minty fresh

It turns out it’s a lot of fun! Phil taught me the formatting of a real lab experiment by doing a mini experiment on butter-mints, a pretty big change of pace from our previous tests. Basically, we measured the durability (specifically how much force it can take before it splits) of the mints on a Chantillon 200 LBF machine. After I collected the data we discussed possible variables and then Phil gave me a crash course in Excel. He also explained various statistics used for data analysis like ANOVA, and Pvalues.

Excel Data: Butter Mint Crush

Next, we ventured to NC State to meet a group of scientists that work in a BSL3 lab, which is a lab containing “safety” chemicals that can be harmful to humans and could possibly be used detrimentally in large quantities. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss proper safety procedures and determine how to manage the various pathogens being used. Phil and Jean are involved in a study that is about to take place concerning the Zika virus and its effects on cells and tissues. It’s important to use extreme care to minimize possible exposures to the diseases being tested in the lab (which includes Rocky Mount Spotted Fever and Bartonella). The coolest part, however, was getting to tour the lab and see how all the safety procedures are implemented.

I ended my last day with a mini staff ice cream party in front of the copy machine (classic) and Sarah showing me the basics of a SEM machine. An SEM machine uses a beam of electrons to chart the typography of the surface of particles. To be completely honest this just means it takes super cool up-close photographs of particles and stuff (kind of like a fancy microscope for materials). The photographs you’ve seen of thread and other fabrics (hair is a popular one for shampoos) close up are probably produced using an SEM machine!

I can’t believe the internship is over! It has been an amazing experience, much better than anything I could have ever imagined and I hope everyone has an opportunity to do something similar before college!

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

IMG_20160601_155059619

At a lunch meeting today I was asked what I would change about the intern program at RTI, my answer: nothing.

There was a tense silence during which Cameron and I looked at each other, both deliberating the entire experience, but everything had gone so well I couldn’t think of anything even remotely critical to say. Take today for instance, we met so many different, amazing, people. First we met Marty, a chemical engineer, who was so incredibly passionate about his work that he talked to us for hours about alternative fuel and increasing the efficiency of preexisting fuel options. He even toured us around all the labs and pointed out different radiators and their functions.

Then came Seung-Hyu Cho. She grew up and studied in South Korea before realizing she wanted to be a scientist and transferred to the University of Cincinnati to fulfill her dream. She talked about her job at RTI and how she got to where she is. Stephanie also shared her experience coming from Clemson to a corporate lab to RTI. But of course the lunch was not complete without a lengthy conversation about cats!

The coolest part of the day came when Stephanie and I (and later Phil) assembled test HIV devices from the films we cast yesterday. The job was tedious no doubt, and I’m sure Stephanie dreads every minute, but I thought it was so much fun to work in a group – constantly solving problems, coming up with new solutions, and joking about it the whole time. I learned how to heat seal the film and stuff the “drug” into the film using a complex (and rather scrappy) series of homemade funnels and “poking devices”. As it turns out I know about pretty much no movies ever. To quote Phil, “ask her if she knows a movie..any movie…the answer will be no”. And ironically a high tech lab filled with millions of dollars of equipment has a lack of functioning scissors (which caused us to label them with happy or sad faces). I think it’s awesome how they can make every chore fun and exciting. It truly is a testament to the ambiance of RTI. I wish I could never leave.

Testing out our device with this gigantic needle

Left: Phil goofing around with the labeled scissors- the good, the bad, and the ugly 🙂 😦

Right: Hey look that’s me!

Polymer = Many Things

Lets break it down…shall we…

Up close and Personal: Pictured above are two polymer films under a microscope

Today was all about polymers, which directly translated means many things. And they are not wrong, polymers are actually a combination of hundreds, thousands even, of molecule chains. This makes them easy to melt, easy to mold, and most importantly easy to work with. Some even go as far as to call it “hobby plastic”, because of its eclectic properties. A material scientist I met today, Stephanie, taught me how to make the polymer films used in the HIV prevention devices. I even made the solution using the calculations attached (thank you Mr.Rushin for making this possible)! Then she showed me two different films under a microscope. The polymer itself is a peachy color and the crystals actually refract light, making some pretty awesome rainbows. On the computer, however, the lens is black and white so the colors don’t really show.

Cameron and I also got to talk to several different scientists today as well. First we were introduced to Jeff, who is an aerosol specialists focused on preventing harmful contaminates and particles from being inhaled into the lungs. He is currently working on a project to create small measuring devices that can be worn by people with potentially hazardous exposures. Not only is his work interesting, but he was more than willing to give us life advice as well. He emphasized the importance of introspection and self-reflection when thinking about possible choices – whether it be college decisions or career paths. We also met with Sarah and Jeff, both are scientist specializing in polymers. They both shared their experience in the science field and how they got where they are today. They too encouraged us to take opportunities in college and to get to do as many internships and research as possible.

Calculations: Amount of PCL to use

Some polymer film I made heat sealed together next to a polymer ring

Mexican and Aerosol

If you find this title confusing you should. The two do not go together, but somehow at RTI the most seemingly separate of things come together in a beautiful synthesis. Each person, each member of the team, each sector of RTI, is filled to the brim with professionals that facilitate the marriage of outlandish theories in the most innovative of ways. My day was not any different. It started a little slower than normal (it was a Friday after all), but what I’ve learned about RTI is when things pick up they never quite stop. I did some light reading in Science News, a weekly press release that covers interesting journal articles from a variety of science fields. Then Phil taught me about the tuberculosis project they are currently working on. Basically some drugs referred to as POA and PAE (one is an ester and one is an oil) were made into uniform powders using a complicated processes that I will not go too in depth into. This process is preformed in several meticulous stages to “purify” these solutions into fine powders. The drugs work by binding to an enzyme present in some strands of TB, which allows it to be absorbed into the think layers of the TB bacteria. The drug changes into its -OH form to target the TB in the lungs. The peculiar part is that, although the drug greatly reduces TB in the lungs, (where it is dispersed) it completely eradicates the disease from the spleen. How curious. Almost immediately after this explanation (which was accompanied by data and a pretty nifty slideshow), I sat in on a conference call with both Phil and an aerosol specialist named Tony. The conference call was with a representative from an video journal. There used to be a device on the market used to administer aerosol drugs for animal testing. Recently, however the company has ceased production and there is no longer anything available for this administration. RTI has created a sterile device akin to the originally manufactured to be released soon. Because the production of it is best understood with pictures and diagrams a traditional journal format would not be ideal, so they are interested in using this new video journal formatting. The conference call never ceased to be interesting, but I found myself even more enthralled in Tony, himself. I got to talk to him in length after the call and it was really interesting to hear about how he became involved in aerosols and what his prospective on modern day innovation is (plus he has written a ton of books and papers that are beyond cool). Around lunch, Dr.Rothrock, Cameron, Michelle, Phil, and I went to a Mexican restaurateur to eat lunch, where Dr.Rothrock shared her own story and described her job. Of course, the day could not go on without some final lab tests (I’m getting pretty fast with it by now) amidst some new funky tune Phil has found on Spotify! What a day! What a week!

(I apologize for the lack of pictures today, but a good portion was confidential and could not be photographed)

Cool Conference Call

From beginning to end, the day could be described by the word productive. First thing Cameron and I met with a man named Lynn. Lynn specializes in LEDs, mostly working with variables like durability, color, brightness, construction, etc. HE even described a new technology innovating the light industry: phones. Now phones will be able to control lighting in a way never seen before. In cities with high crime rates it can be possible to install audio devices in outdoor light fixtures to detect gun shots and alert authorities. He also took the time to get to know Cameron and I and talk about the college process and a typical day in his position. After the meeting I got to meet Michelle, Cameron’s scientist, and she explained the devices they are working on to measure the amount of harmful particles created by cooking stoves in impoverished countries. After this, I spent a good part of the day cleaning the lab before the big conference call. During my awesome cleaning experience, Phil introduced me to polymers – a plastic with a low melting point which makes it easily melted and molded. When the plastic hardens, however, it becomes very durable and solid. We melted some of our own polymer in hot water and I scupted it into a ring . Next came the more serious part of the day! The “conference call” was really a high profile meeting explaining the outcomes of the testing (on the HIV project) to major donors. We watched the presentation on a projector and listened to the conversation (in case Phil had to be called on to explain a part of the research), while simultaneously running tests for the HIV project. At one point I observed plastic under a microscope to view the individual crystals. I also got to do much of the tests (yay pipetting!) on my own today. Nothing like science and a movie to end the day (or a conference call and some testing is good too)!

Polymer!

Micelle, Surfactants, and Nanoparticles – Oh my!

Light Diffraction Data from a sample – for tips on what this means please browse the links below…

FAQ – ELS Overview An_Introduction_to_DLS in 30 Minutes

There is never a shortage of things to do at RTI! Though the day started a little slow with some light reading (by the way the Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons by Sam Kean is a great read), once it started moving it never quite stopped. We continued some lab work from yesterday. First we ran samples (made from surfacant, chromium, and polymer) through a sonicator. A sonicator uses audio submerged in water to break up aggravated particles. Then we used a centrifuge to separate particles to the bottom. Next, came the fun part of syringing the solution into a curved cell to be put into a dynamic light scattering machine (or DLS). Surfacants are bipolar substances, which kinda look like tadpoles under a microscope, with a hydrophobic and hydrophilic end. Sometimes surfactants aggregate and form micelles, which are simply aggravated surfacant molecules in a colloid (a colloid is a mixture with insoluble substance microscopically dispersed). These micelles are spherical in shape with the hydrophobic tails facing towards the center. This brings us to the CMC (critical micelle concentration), which is the concentration of surfacants above which micelles form and all additional sufucants form micelles. THis is relevant information because when running the samples through the DLS the graphs will be erratic if the pH induced the formation of micelles and the size vary greatly. The purpose of an DLS machine is to track nano particles and the relative size of particles. One we reached lunch I got to sit in on the YP lunch presentations (that’s young professionals – man these people like their acronyms!). The presentations serve to bring people at RTI together to practice presenting their findings to a group in part to share their findings with other departments and to also give those with less established careers to have the experience of presenting. I heard a lecture on mapping the innovation process and the iterative cycles of learning and focus, fluorescent carbon nano particles found in coffee and fruit juices (presented by the one and only Phil Durham), and idea generation in relation to energy technology development. We then spent the remainder of the day continuing the study and learning about polymers. Yay!

Dynamic Light Scattering

Today I researched dynamic light scattering and zeta potential. Changing the pH adjusts the charge of the particles and prevent aggravation to increase shelf-life. Ideally, all the particles will act as separate particles and not join together as conglomerates. The pH can induce a charge formation because the negatively charged particles will repel each other (as can surfactants and legions). I spent some of my own time learning about dynamic light scattering before participating in the experiment. Basically, it’s a way of determining size distribution of small particles or polymers in suspension in a solution. A laser is shot through a sample scatters lights of the particles and is collected by a photomultplier, and the resulting image is collected like static on a television. The speckled pattern can be analyzed to find patterns and trends. By the way, this is all based on Brownian motion, the idea that random motion of particles suspended in a gas or solution. Then, I participated in the testing of some of these samples before attending a lunch seminar on biometrics and policy. The lecture was very interesting study on stress in police officers in Durham (right after the famous Veil of Darkness Study conducted by RTI to test police officer bias) using high tech versions of fit bits. The emphasis was on the intervention of stress in this field in the future, based on the collected data. Directly afterward, I attended a conference call about the upcoming HIV project being presented on Thursday. To end the day, my pipetting skills were put to the test. I pipetted many test tubes with a buffer solution I mixed and diluted. Not only did I get to pick the music while doing so (sorry for the abundance of Train Phil), but I also had the opportunity to learn some more about excel in the process!

Lean mean pipetting machine!

First Day, Fun Day

What a whirlwind! The day started with a crash course of RTI with Dr.Rothrock, and the “ambassador of Emily”, Mr.Phil Durham. RTI was the first research center in North Carolina, which came from a push to keep local intellectuals in North Carolina after college graduation. Since it’s creation in 1958, RTI has acted as a means to innovate the world through science as an “in between” non-profit for university and industry. There are many facets to the research including policy, social science, statistics, economics, biology and chemistry. Phil Durham is a biochemist, specializing in particles, and is part of the team working on a major HIV prevention research project. Additionally, he is working on an aerosol powder to target Tuberculosis at its source – the lungs. But there is a wide range of projects occurring at RTI simultaneously. Dr.Rothrock (head of the HIV project) is also part of an NIH evaluation, as well as worked on a recent vaginal ring project. By the end of the day I helped work on the HIV prevention experiment, measuring the absorbency of light in a photometer. I even ran my own test and graphed it against a blank buffer sample to view the resulting trend!

Learning about light absorbency!

RTI Powerpoint: 2016 April Clinton Health

Excell Spreadsheet of Collected Data: Copy of Copy of EEL Dilution 8 5-23-16 Graph

Copy of EEL Dilution 8 5-23-16

CA Work Experience Program 2016

DICE-ing in the Real World

Emily