The Most Exciting Week (so far)

This week has been full of excitement, so much so that I originally thought I'd split it into multiple posts, but that's not going to happen. I'll start with what has happened and then talk about the lasers, since I know I promised that two weeks ago.

This week I got my captain's license and check out procedure done so that I am now allowed to captain my own boat for research purposes. Although this may seem like a very minor task, it is nice to be able to have more control over when I go out to do my research and to have the skills necessary to boat safely in our pristine Marine Lab coastal environment. 

More exciting than getting my captain's license was having my first major paper accepted for publication in a journal. If you remember, a number of months ago I wrote a book review that was accepted for publication, but book reviews are often subjective statements about how the book contributes to the field of knowledge in a particular area of research. The paper that was just accepted is a large review paper on the status of nematodes as bioindicators, and I am so lucky to have my PI, Dr. Jeroen Ingels, as the other author on this paper. We worked on this for almost a year in order to accurately reflect the past four decades worth of research on marine pollution studies that use nematodes as indicators of environmental health. We also present our thoughts on what the future of nematode bioindication work should be, with specific discussions on microplastics pollution, shaped by my own research.

Finally, I got to start analyzing my microplastic samples using the lasers. The machine is called a Raman spectrograph and it works by shooting a laser at a particle and assessing the laser/light scatter that comes from the interaction between the laser and the particle. Although I didn't get much done today with the Raman spectroscopy, I did realize that I needed a more efficient way of analyzing the particles. The stage that holds the samples is motorized and moves at a very fine scale. The plastic particles that I picked out of my samples are scattered across filter papers that are 10 cm in diameter. You can imagine how long it takes, then, to find all the particles when the stage is moving very slowly. Therefore, this upcoming weekend/week (depending on how long it takes) I will be picking every plastic or plastic-like particle from the filter papers and putting each particle on a petri dish with a counting sticker, thereby allowing me to consolidate the area in which the particles are found. By consolidating the particles in a narrow field I will save myself a lot of time when analyzing the particles because I won't need to search for them across the entirety of the filter paper. 

You might be saying, "Aaron, you must be super upset that you took an entire day with the lasers and got no data," and you're a bit right. I was frustrated that I couldn't analyze the particles I brought with me, but part of working in a relatively new field of science and being a PhD student is learning how to overcome obstacles. Today was a very minor obstacle that I quickly thought of a potential solution for, so I will dedicate time to the solution and hope that it pays off. I hope to have data and laser spectra to present next week so you can see how cool the Raman spectroscopy process is. Instead, here's a picture of all the warning signs on the outside of the lab.

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