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Emma Morin, Swarm Lab weeks 5 and 6

Week 5 and 6

Hi again! These last two weeks have been great...and by great I mean kind of hectic and extremely tiring. On the bright side, I have been very independent in my lab work, and I have had a lot of fun doing it. The camera focusing issue I mentioned last week has all but disappeared, and I am able to begin experiments on my own now. However, there have been a few hiccups. The first one we found was that the 10% agar in the experimental plates was losing water and shriveling during the experiment. This messed with the results and quickly became an issue that we needed to fix quickly. Subash 3-D printed three different punches until we finally found one that could fit inside the plate without breaking the agar and wouldn’t shrink. Additionally, the tubules were truly testing my patience because they wouldn’t grow nicely, and many of them had bumps and junctions that made them unusable. (I must note that we finally got new small scissors on 8/1/18, and they are much better at ridding the tubules of bumps)
Some days I would come all the way to Newark only to find that there was no growth, and I would wait for a few hours to see if there was any progress, and eventually go home having done nothing. The worst day in my lab to date occurred this Monday. That day, I had to attend the NJIT Undergraduate Research Symposium. Having arrived early to campus, I decided to sit down in the lounge. Now, this lounge has some very comfy chairs that happen to be directly under a wooden ledge.

‘Hm’, I thought, ‘Someone could hit their head on that ledge’ My instincts seem to be quite sharp. I strode over to the chair, and I threw my tired body into the seat, immediately whacking my head into the ledge with full force. My coordination and general intellect seem to be less so. Long story short, I started to cry from the pain and hid in the bathroom until it subsided to a dull ache. I had headaches for the rest of the day. When I finally sat on the train, I felt better. At least I would be home in 45 minutes. I showed my ticket to the conductor and he laughed and informed me that I had boarded the wrong train, and would have to get off in New Brunswick and wait for the next train to Hamilton. Sweet. When we finally got to New Brunswick, I waited for another 40 minutes for the next train to Hamilton. My only saving grace, the only silver lining of the day, was that the train home was the cool one with wood panels and leather-esque seats. I, carefully this time, sat on the train, took a few more painkillers, and finally went home.
After a day like that, every other day is a bit brighter in comparison. The rest of this week has consisted of preparation for the NJIT Provost High School Summer Research Symposium, where I will be presenting my research. I'm actually writing this the day of the symposium, so I'm a bit nervous but excited nonetheless. I still have lab work to do though, so once I post this I have to start replating the slime molds. I might as well get that done now, see you soon!

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