As many of you probably have heard me lament in the past, I am a junior in college, a Pre-Med biology major. Me and my close friends, 2 guys and 3 girls, are all in the same grade and major. Each grade has about 70-120 kids in in major. I think it's fair to say that me and my friends are pretty well known in my grade by both the the students and the professors. My friends and I all usually score in the top 10% of tests and for the past 2 semesters we have all been student TAs. TAs, or teacher assistants, are given little perks like keys to the labs and in exchange help the professors set up lab or correct tests.

 

 

 

But lo, I digress! After two years of packed semesters, I decided to take a mini break this semester and only have 19 hours of class/lab a week instead of my usual 22 hours. This seemingly tiny choice of mine seems to have had a massive impact on my life. On the second day of class I am leaving a TA meeting with my friends and the head biology professor sticks his head out of his door and looks at me as I walk past, he seems to be thinking something over. Finally he says "[Trapical]...come with me". I have no idea what's going on but say bye to my friends and walk over. When I get close he says nothing but grabs his lab coat and starts walking in the opposite direction. We get to the elevator. Note that out science building is 5 stories tall, the bottom 4 floors are split by subject. First floor is physics, second is biology, third is chemistry/geology, and fourth is psychology. The smaller fifth floor is restricted and accessible only by keycard. Upperclassmen tell us it has the chemical stockrooms and professor lounges. Anyway so we get in the elevator and the head professor (who has yet to speak since we started walking 3 minites ago) swipes his keycard into the access panel and we start moving. I am quite scared at this moment, fearing that I'm going to get really, really blamed for something and yelled at... on the fifth floor.

 

 

 

The elevator stops and we get out, I have never been on the fifth floor before and quite amazed, everything was renovated a few years ago and this place was spotless. We walk down a short hallway and into a conference room that had half a dozen students I recognized as Biology majors...all seniors. One of them look up and says "He's only a junior" but another guy there cuts him off "Nah, I know him, he's cool". Finally it hits me as to what the heck is going on. I was just promoted from "T.A." to "Research Student" :D Let me explain, at the beginning of each school year at my college 10 research posts open up, 5 for Chemistry and 5 for Biology. Naturally with about a hundred seniors every year in each subject, these spots are quite prestigious. I didn't really know what they did, but I knew it was pretty cool. I take a seat and am handed a thick manila folder. On top of the folder was a keycard and a small map of what the key card has access to, and what else is on the 5th floor. The professor tells us to open the manila folder and that inside were the dossiers (Lol, his words not mine!) of a few dozen upperclassmen biology majors that were "exceptional in both academics and leadership". We were each allowed to choose two lab assistants from this group, and give them whatever task we deemed suitable to help us with. In return for their help, they get their names put right after ours on any paper we publish with our work. The dossiers in the folder were quite personal really, they gave the GPA and class listing of each of the students, as well as a few notes from their professors. I was embarrassed to find my own profile in the stack; apparently I was only meant to be an assistant but at the last minute I was bumped up for some reason.

 

 

 

The professor goes to the front and begins discussing this years projects, this year's theme is parasites and six projects were discussed, the five of us each had to each pick the one we liked the most. I'll briefly summarize three of them:

 

 

 

1) The President of the college had his dog die over the summer, the vet said it was parasites. An angry President gave the body to the parasitologist professor at the school and essentially said "Find out what killed my dog :evil:" the professor found that it was a heart worm normally found in birds, and there have been no documented cases of it ever infecting mammals. :-k

 

Task: use molecular sequencing on the DNA, then use your data and search the National Institute of Health's database for a match. If there is no match, you found a new species. Name it however you wish, publish your findings, and warn the Department of Natural Resources that this new species is fatal to canines.

 

 

 

 

 

2) An invasive snail species native to central Russia has appeared in the Great Lakes, it has spread to Green Bay and is working it's way through the state towards the Mississippi (to show this a power point presentation displayed a unbelievably sweet animated map that showed the eastern United States and displayed a wave of dark red slowly spreading west through rivers. It looked like a map of Russian troop advancement :shock:) to add to the coolness of the situation the professor pulled out a pointed and tapped the display of the map on the overhead "we must stop the advancement here *jabs at map" and here *jabs again*.

 

Task: travel to this locations in western Wisconsin and set up a perimeter at the river mouths, notify locals, set up a screening station, and work with government officials to prevent the spread of these snails, which are carrying pathogens harmful to humans and water fowl. Once you get back, extract the DNA from one of the snails and send the data to the pesticide companies. "If the snails reach the Mississippi, they could spread as far as Oregon before we could do anything about it."

 

 

 

 

 

3) East of Green Bay is the Point Beach nuclear power plant. Several local fishermen have noticed a decrease in the local adult fish population. Preliminary analysis indicates that a potent tapeworm is to blame. The Department of Natural Resources sent a team to identify the tapeworm but had trouble. It was closely related to Diphyllobothrium latum but has a few differences from the rest of the population. These differences were slight but enough to increase the potency of the parasite almost two fold. Frustrated, the Department team gave the entire project to the college for analysis.

 

Task: It is believed that the parasite is a new species born due to a radiation leak from the plant. Obtain more samples of the species, isolate it's DNA, clone the DNA, inject the DNA into the egg of a closely related species and observe for further mutation. Use this data to diagnose the extent of the original [nuclear] mutation and determine the full extent of the effects of radiation on the parasite. Do a full DNA sequence on the new species, name it, and publish your findings in the Journal of Nuclear Medicine.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm doing that 3rd one :wink: . The first two I listed sounded awesome but those were snatched up by the seniors before I could even think about it. When he was describing the third project about the tape worms I heard the words 'name a new species' again so I staked a claim on it and secured it as my project :D I really don't care about tapeworms but I am interesting in the nuclear part of the whole thing and I think it would just be phenomenal to name a new species. Ha, I would be able to say things like the following

 

"No, I'm pretty sure thats how that species is pronounced... I named it"

 

"Hello textbook author? Yea, I disagree with this page in your book, you need to change it. See, your facts are wrong, check the source... you can start by going to Google and searching for my name" :P

 

 

 

Anyway, so far it's been pretty sweet. The work is hard but challenging in a good way and its amazing to do "homework" with the feeling that no one has ever done this before. I also enjoy going up to the "restricted" 5th floor to use the vending machines inbetween classes. They are actually 10 cents cheaper then the same vending machines on all the lower floors : it feels like I just got into the Legend's guild or something, except instead of a white cape I get academic prowess. Plus, when I'm done I can say I'm published, or as the professor says "You can honestly say you contributed to science" :uhh:

 

 

 

 

 

Well, that was a long story. Anyone else do any research of any kind? Anyone else going into the sciences? I hope my story can excite at least some of you a little bit. It saddens me that 85% of the college students in the United States are business/economic/education majors. Compare this to the Chinese or Japanese where ~90% of the students are engineers. People talk of WWIII happening in fifty years, but in reality it is going on as we speak. It is not a war of guns but a war in our cultural and educational values. More and more American students are simply taking the easiest classes they can, or are going into fields just for the money. One would think with the chances, excitement, and usefulness of the sciences they would be more popular; but I guess sex, drinking, afternoon classes, and money are more important to students. *sigh*

I dont know is this is cool, or really hard to do :lol: It sounds really fun though to do, if i could do this i would though i would have no idea what to do :XD:

Congrats.

 

:thumbsup:

No offense, but it seems like you boast alot about how good of a student you are.

 

 

 

To answer your question, I have been researching the fall of communism in Russia for my world history class. Its going well.

 

 

 

And congratz on your accomplishments.

Awesome dude! Well done!

 

 

 

The kind of stuff you're mentioning is right up my alley.

 

 

 

Currently 2nd semester, first year, bachelor of applied science degree, planning of majoring in biochemistry. I just adore everything genetics and wouldn't mind getting into something like genome studies and perhaps do some research there. Going through the composition of the genome and the types of sequence present in one of my uni classes was a great inspiration for this.

wow, that's awesome

 

I'm going into computer science like 90% of the people on this board :?

Yes very good for you =D>

 

 

 

I'd like to go to college to become an officer in the USCG :o

To obtain my Master's degree in chemical engineering I conducted research on the deactivation behavior of hydrodesulfurization catalysts. Catalysts are used in cars, but on a large scale in oil refinery as well. Since the throughput of the refinery is so huge, the slightest improvement in catalysts will gain big profits. As a result, extensive research is done on those catalysts.

 

From refinery practice, it's known that these catalysts become less active over time. First period of deactivation is a few days, but *very* rapid. This is followed by relative constant activity for about 2 years. Ending with rapid deactivation again. Not much was known about that first initial deactivation that only takes days, so that's what my research focussed on.

 

I mimicked the deactivation stages on laboratory scale by using a test reaction on a catalyst sample. I analyzed it with low temperature infrared spectroscopy and Carbon monoxide as probe molecule. By interpreting the spectra, I was able to obtain generic information about what kind of species were formed on the catalyst surface and by looking at the infrared vibration of the CO-probe molecule I could conclude where the probe molecules preferentially adsorbed. In other words, where the desulfurization reaction took place.

 

This work was later on published in a leading catalysis research journal in 2000. Since I wrote it, I was first author on the paper (woohoo).

 

 

 

Afterwards, I went on to do a PhD in the same research group. It didn't turn out quite as I expected and the research grand was cancelled about 3 years into the project (which left me without a PhD title grrrrr).

 

The topic on that was 'photocatalysis'. Some reactions in industry, specifically oxidation reactions are widely used, but are not very selective. Apart from the desired end product, a lot of undesired product is formed during these oxidation reactions. This is simply waste product that can't be used. It's a waste of money and a burden on the raw chemicals. (e.g. in the production of the base chemical for a certain nylon, 85% is considered waste product).

 

 

 

The idea was to use light, instead of just yanking the temperature high during these oxidation reactions (leading to low selectivity). Basically, the use of photons was to take over the role of temperature during these reactions: crossing the reaction energy barrier.

 

A proffessor in Berkeley had already demonstrated this to work at low temperatures (around 130 K) on simple molecules as butane, propane and reported excellent selectivity towards the desired oxide product. Low temperature of course is not pheasable in industry. My research focussed on trying to make these photo-induced reactions possible at room temperature. My topic was elucidating the kinetics of these reactions.

 

 

 

I worked in a team with two other PhD students. One was focussing on developing novel catalyst materials, the other on making an industry suitable reactor setup (how to get a high light-efficiency?). We built a test set-up including a laser and again infrared analysis of the catalyst sample. Exposing the catalyst samples to the laser, while leading reaction gas over it, should lead to conversion. But, it didn't.

 

After three years of trying all sorts of catalyst samples, different test reactions and laser intensities, we had to conclude that it couldn't be done at room temperature in this set-up.

 

The money stopped flowing and that was the end of my career in research (around 2004) ;)

Wow, nice, congratulations.

 

 

 

Though after next year I'm going to probably do a business course at Uni, I'm sure you're going to despise me for that. Don't worry its not for the money, sex, afternoon classes etc. etc. etc. I just find Business management a very enjoyable thing to study - believe it or not I find science quite boring. We all have different tastes. :)

 

 

 

Well done once again on your achievement. :wink:

Whaw! That must be awesome, good job. So we're expecting new species called "Trapical"?

 

 

 

You're probably gonna enjoy the year to its full content now :) .

Heh, that sounds fascinating, and pretty cool that you have access to a whole new floor :

 

 

 

I definitely want to do a science degree at uni, probably physics related. Although the Natural Sciences degree at Cambridge is what appeals to me most. You do a mix of subjects in the first year (i'd probably do physics and chemistry related stuff, i'm not carrying biology on for the next few years, sadly), then specialise in the next 3 years in the subjects that interest you more. :)

They have me doing a 25-35 page research paper this semester on the urban history of Europe.

 

 

 

Hope you have fun with it!

Congratulations :thumbsup:

 

 

 

How long does it take you to write post's like that? Lol.

No thanks. I'd want to go through education phase as fast as possible. Get degree then get out.

congratulations. You should come back and tell us how your research is going in a few months.

:evil: I soooo wish I could get a chance to do something like that. I dunno if I can get into what I want for biology due to math marks, so it looks like im falling back on computers.

 

 

 

Dunno what I can study that no on else has in the field of computers, but i hope to try.

 

 

 

Good luck on your task, as that is amazing.

not to knock you off your pedestal but you're a junior pre-med, and you haven't done any research yet?? I just did some paid clinical research my freshman year (didn't finish, bit mad, maybe finish next year). My sisters are just starting junior year and they both are getting ready to already publish (research done). You are a bit behind. Glad your at least doing it now though, cause medical schools like to see at least some research. Its mostly not if you do research or not, but how many works you publish.

 

 

 

Anyway, gratz on the cool position, your research projects seems quite fun! Hope you finish and publish your work!!! Plus you will meet some seniors and professors(good LORS :P ). Enjoy!

 

 

 

EDIT: yea there is quite a bit boasting, but I don't think he meant to come off this way. I think he is proud of his new position, and Tropical you should be! You didn't even have to apply, but just got invited to it, quite an honor. Gratz.

 

 

 

You getting paid btw? or at least receiving college credit? Cause if you are not, you should ask them about it

Congratulations! That sound like a lot of fun. I hope you don't accidentally get a tapeworm :lol: .

Great read, but I don't understand why shortening your schedule helped you?

 

 

 

I dare ya to name the worm

 

 

 

"Wormus Trapicalus" or something scientific with the word 'trapical' in it.