WHAT THE HECK IS A SPECTROPHOTOMETER? Is what some of my colleagues were wondering in our first lab on day 2 of SSP Genomics at NMSU. Yes, this is the real day 2. First off, I just want to say that the breakfast here at NMSU is really really good. The eggs are not powdered and the bacon is not rubbery. I was at Sacramento State last week, and I can tell you that the food was definitely not at this level. After breakfast, we had some pipette and spectrophotometer lab practice– which were luckily familiar to me. It was kind of funny that we wore our lab coats and gloves while working with water, but it is good practice for our future work with bacteria. We followed this by some delicious chicken tacos and more lab work. We also began setting up our chemostats, which are really easy to operate. As someone who has never done formal research before, I am excited that this is our prep work. I just know that the labs are going to get far more complicated and I am ready for that. I am building bonds with my colleagues just by being in the same space as them. Everyone is starting again at the basics, which are sometimes confusing too. Even today, my group’s chemostat malfunctioned and one of the lines burst, but we eventually resolved this with some help from Ms. Alexa and Mr. Shakill (big thank yous). Yet, our shared struggles are what bring us even closer together. Yesterday, we gathered and talked, but today we learned and solved.
Academic pressure pushes us to resolve any differences and collaborate efficiently. All 24 of us are experiencing new and unfamiliar technology and techniques, effectively forcing us to talk to each other. We learn, eat, and feel together, no one gets left behind. At SSP, we are kind of like a biofilm– communicating together like quorum sensing in bacteria– all while we are in the middle of the New Mexican desert. I am equally excited to get to know my colleagues’ personal lives and personalities, but also to learn their work habits, their intelligence, and wit. It is safe to say that everyone in my cohort is motivated and sincere, inside and outside the lab. I am very very excited to see the research that comes in the following weeks and I know I will be sad to leave my colleagues–friends already– on departure day.
Side note: We just had our first problem set and it kind of cooked us but we definitely have it better than Astro.
