Mod three, baby!

Mod 3. Viruses? Batteries? Together? What?

I UROP in the Hammond lab, just down the hall of the Belcher lab. We share a lot of the same space, a lot of the same instruments, and interact with each other a good amount. But before this module, the Belcher lab was just the place with the wicked cool sonicator and the nanodrop. I walked by that battery room almost every day without having any clue what was in it. It was pretty great getting to actually learn about some of their work!

This module really put the engineering in biological engineering. I mean, after all, we made batteries. Batteries. HA. Finally, when someone skeptically asks me what makes BE any different from Biology, I can pull this lil anecdote out. I feel like we didn't actually do much, since the Belcher lab has this protocol down pat (yet we still managed to mess it up somehow, lol), but it was a cute and exciting experience. Definitely different from anything else I've done research-wise. Plus we got our own, adorable, bacteriophage-incorporated coin-cell batteries as keepsakes so we can remember and cherish our times together in 20.109 forever!

Oh, and one more thing about the batteries: Jifa...How do I begin to explain Jifa? Jifa did all the things. Jifa is god. Jifa is flawless. I hear his battery rolling skills are insured for $10,000. I hear he does car battery commercials...in Japan. His favorite movie is Contagion. One time he met Barack Obama on a plane...and he told him he was pretty. One time he punched me in the face...it was awesome. Okay so those last parts aren't true, but yay Mean Girls references and really, yay to Jifa for always saving the day. Also George, whose TEM operating skills made him look like he was flying a rocket. Pretty awesome. You guys rock!

Project proposal was fun. Michelle and I spent multiple hours feeling like puddles trying to come up with some viable idea with too little sleep, but it all turned out okay. I like big ideas and often get caught up in them, so it was a fun exercise. We wanted to come up with something really troll but never made it to that. Dressing up as Leslie and Noreen for the presentation was cute, and I hope you thought we emulated well. Fashionistas! Once again, thanks to all the teaching staff for always being there for us.