Intern at the Georgia Institute of Technology
January 2017-May 2017
For a class in the spring of his senior year, Samuel had the opportunity to have an internship at the Georgia Institute of Technology. He interned with Dr. Amanda Stockton in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry. The Stockton Lab Group works in the Molecular Sciences and Engineering Building at the University. There, they study astrobiology, or the science of the detection of the origins of life in the universe, as well as life outside the atmosphere of Earth. In particular, they study Mars analogs, or environments like that of Mars in some way that are back here on Earth. They study sites such as remote locations of the Atacama Desert and the Volcanoes of Iceland. At each of these sites, they collect data that they sometimes analyze at a laboratory in the field with a variety of procedures to test for signs of life. If signs of life are found at the field laboratory, and the procedures are able to be performed with relatively low resources or access to civilization, then those procedures might be viable options to include on any potential future missions to Mars. These procedures include, but are not limited to, quantitative polymerase chain reaction, adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence assay analysis, and fluorescence microscopy.
At his internship, Samuel did daily research work for Dr. Stockton. He most commonly did moisture content analysis for samples from the Atacama Desert. This involved putting samples from the desert in glass vials and putting them in an oven heated to 100 degrees Celsius. After each day, the mass of the samples was taken in an effort to see if moisture had evaporated from the samples overnight. The idea was that moisture would evaporate from the samples for a few days, then the mass would level off as all moisture evaporated from the sample. After the mass leveled off, the samples were taken out of the oven and to particle sizing. This involved pouring each sample through a column of sieves of different sizes and measuring what percentage of the mass of each sample was stopped at each successive sieve. For his individual research, Samuel compared the particle sizing data for the Atacama samples against data collected previously from adenosine triphosphate bioluminescence assay analysis of the samples. His research concept map for the process is pictured below.
A Sample Day at Internship:
Coming to internship today, I knew that I would be doing particle size distribution analysis in ES&T. I went there, but once again it was unfortunately locked, so I would have to stop by MoSE to get a key. When I arrived, no one from the Stockton lab group that could get me a key to ES&T was present, I learned after asking around to see if anyone had one. Mike told me that Zach had a key, however, and that he would return in a few minutes. In the meantime, I noticed that the stack of cardboard outside the lab was getting rather large. I took it upon myself to take care of it, and moved the broken-down boxes into an area in which they could be taken to recycling. After I returned, Zach came into the lab after a short while, and lent me his key. With the key in hand, I headed over to ES&T to do my data collection for today. I found that today went much better than yesterday, and I was overall better at the process. Yesterday, there were a few minor mistakes and one rather large mistake in terms of situations in which part or all of a sample was spilled. Today, however, there were no such mistakes, and soon after beginning, I got into a rhythm and started to really move along with my data collection. I was able to get through particle size distribution analysis for samples 39A-49C. I hope to be completely done with the particle sizing with this set of samples by the end of Tuesday of next week. After I did that particle sizing, I had a conversation with Dr. Stockton. We discussed how everything was going, and I told her about my progress. She said that I should continue to do what I am doing, and that I may look into qPCR data that has been found with her next week on Monday. In addition, she emailed me access to the ATP data that was found quite some time ago. This will help me in my individual research, as one of the two variables that I am comparing is ATP bioluminescence assay results (the other is particle size distribution analysis). Also, I gave Dr. Stockton her formal invitation to attend my presentation at the very end of the semester. She seemed happy to receive it.
Coming to internship today, I knew that I would be doing particle size distribution analysis in ES&T. I went there, but once again it was unfortunately locked, so I would have to stop by MoSE to get a key. When I arrived, no one from the Stockton lab group that could get me a key to ES&T was present, I learned after asking around to see if anyone had one. Mike told me that Zach had a key, however, and that he would return in a few minutes. In the meantime, I noticed that the stack of cardboard outside the lab was getting rather large. I took it upon myself to take care of it, and moved the broken-down boxes into an area in which they could be taken to recycling. After I returned, Zach came into the lab after a short while, and lent me his key. With the key in hand, I headed over to ES&T to do my data collection for today. I found that today went much better than yesterday, and I was overall better at the process. Yesterday, there were a few minor mistakes and one rather large mistake in terms of situations in which part or all of a sample was spilled. Today, however, there were no such mistakes, and soon after beginning, I got into a rhythm and started to really move along with my data collection. I was able to get through particle size distribution analysis for samples 39A-49C. I hope to be completely done with the particle sizing with this set of samples by the end of Tuesday of next week. After I did that particle sizing, I had a conversation with Dr. Stockton. We discussed how everything was going, and I told her about my progress. She said that I should continue to do what I am doing, and that I may look into qPCR data that has been found with her next week on Monday. In addition, she emailed me access to the ATP data that was found quite some time ago. This will help me in my individual research, as one of the two variables that I am comparing is ATP bioluminescence assay results (the other is particle size distribution analysis). Also, I gave Dr. Stockton her formal invitation to attend my presentation at the very end of the semester. She seemed happy to receive it.
Copyright © February 26, 2017 Samuel West