Early Encounters

11/22/12

Today, Mr. Evans picked Sherry and I up from Emma and took us to RPI to meet our mentors for the first time. Once we finally made it passed the roadwork, we were at RPI in no time and ready to meet the team. Dr. Watson is the head scientist we will be working under in collaboration with the rest of his team, consisting of Heather (a research scientist), a research professor and two undergraduate students. After quick introductions, Dr. Watson proceeded to show us around the lab where the research team had access to a myriad of "cool" science tools. Since the research team deals with different fields of Earth science, Sherry and I oohed and ahhed at machines that put tremendous amounts of pressure on substances and cookers that could heat substances more than hot enough to roast you alive. These machines strive to simulate conditions within the Earth's crust and as Heather explained: there is more known about materials found on different planets than the substances beneath the Earth's crust. Sherry and I also bore witness to an extra fancy microscope that would send out a beam of electrons on a substance. This microscope could then both create a picture of the substance and even identify atoms that made up that substance. The microscope was very accurate and could identify even a substance that was only one part of five million. We were impressed to say the least.

Hopefully I will be able to start my internship next week and get to try some of these machines out for my own!