Andrew Mah, Entry #4, Last Hopes

My fifth week at the Khalizov lab has ended. Although this week has been a short one due to Independence weekend, I have been able to do solid work. I have one week left in the lab, but the mass spectrometry is still not working well. While Matt and Dr. Khalizov are doing their best to fix the machine, hopes look really low. They have been working on this machine for three weeks, and I understand that this is part of science research. I have done significant amount of research that still makes this experience worth it.

I have been working on two things this week. I am trying to figure out if different molarities of the glutaric acid solution affect the mass of the soaked glass wool. This will be important when conducting the actual experiment because we can adjust the molarity of the solution depending on the mass of glutaric acid we want on the glass wool. I have also been testing out the nitrogen flow installed on the fume hood to see if different flows of nitrogen affect the glass wool in the inlet. This nitrogen flow replicates the helium flow we will use in the actual experiment. Using a Gilibrator, I adjusted the nitrogen flow to be 5 cubic centimeters per second, which is the flow of helium we want in the actual experiment.

Meanwhile, the summer program at NJIT is still running. There was another seminar for high school students to attend. Dr. Khalizov gave a presentation about science research in college, and it was definitely intriguing to see the different areas of science research in college. Once again, there was a networking session where I am able to talk to other high school students about our lab experience. I am looking forward to my last week in the lab, and I hope that I will be able to work with the mass spectrometry before I leave.