REU 2009 Blog

The Magnet Lab's Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program draws students from all over the country to spend eight weeks learning from the leading researchers in their chosen field. This blog chronicles two undergraduates interested in science careers – one from a large university and another from a small college – as they learn their way around the lab and expand their research horizons.

The Bloggers

Chemistry major Jonathan Padelford is a rising junior at Columbus State University, a small school about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Instead of working at a local sign supply warehouse like he'd normally be doing, he's spending the summer being mentored by scholar/scientist Ke Han of the lab's Magnet Science and Technology group.

Kayla Crosbie is a rising sophomore at the University of Colorado at Boulder double-majoring in math and physics. Looking to expand on the things she is already learning at CU's prestigious physics department, she decided to summer in Tallahassee and is being mentored by scholar/scientist Alexey Suslov. Kayla is a bit of a Renaissance woman; her other interests include hobbies as diverse as snowboarding and literature.

Final Week: July 20-24

Kayla Crosbie

I ended up having a lot of things to do at the very last minute. I gave my final poster proof to Alexey and he realized that we forgot to put on the actual numbers of the elastic constants that we measured. I was like, "Do people really care about numbers?" But he was just like, "Oh, I can't believe I forgot this. This is really important." So I moved a few things around and we fit it in, and we had everything ready at literally the last minute. It was a little stressful but it worked out and now it's pretty funny.

Actually presenting the poster wasn't as intense as I thought it might be. People just come over and check things out and then maybe ask you to explain some of your work. I got to meet some other people who did things with similar techniques but different materials.

It was also neat to go to my friends' posters and see what they had been doing. You sort of hear about it but of course it's neater to see it all tied together.

I've learned a lot about how to write scientifically. Myself, I have always preferred scientific writing in a language anyone can understand because it's the best way to make the concepts accessible. And sometimes I feel like people use bigger words to cloak the fact that they don't know what they're doing.

But Alexey explained that a lot of scientific writing is almost sort of coded with specific words and phrases in specific types of research so that when people are getting information, they'll be able to look things up. He also explained the importance of using references and being referenced yourself to tie similar types of research together.

I think it's good to be able to do both things and be comfortable. I want to be a professor, so I want to be able to describe concepts without losing the people I'm talking to, but at the same time communicating your ideas to other scientists is important as well.

I've gotten to talk a little more with some theorists as well, and I've learned a little more about the divide between academic theorists and theorists who are more over on the experimental side.

I think two of the most important things I've learned this summer are learning to complete a project on a set schedule and – I guess I'd call it goal-oriented reading. Alexey would give me a huge book to read and I had to learn to get the information I needed out of it instead of going over every word and researching every concept like I would have before. There's just not enough time to do that in a normal day-to-day cycle. I've learned a lot about working efficiently and working smart. One thing is for sure – regular homework is going to seem really easy.

I also really liked learning a little bit more of how to separate my social life from my physics life. It's not like I'm a troll person or something, but I will find myself spaced out and thinking about physics even when I'm doing something fun. I liked the rule at lunch here that there was no talking about work. It really helped clear my head and enforce that separation a little bit. Life is more enjoyable when you're not always in that weird middle zone.

Jonathan Padelford

My poster session went pretty good and I did get a few questions, but nothing I couldn't answer. I made sure beforehand that I would understand how to explain everything. Most people just asked me to explain a little bit about what I did and wished me good luck. All the main stuff I felt pretty comfortable with answering.

A couple people who work with Dr. Han came by, and I tried to sound a little smarter around them because I'm sure they'll give him feedback. I hope I'll get to stay in touch with Dr. Han. When we went to lunch he tried a little to sway me into materials science. He says that when I graduate I could look into doing a combination of materials science and chemistry, which I might look at doing during graduate school.

My mentor back home is wanting me to do something like this every summer until I graduate, so I'll probably be doing one or two more REU programs.

I think one of the most important things I'm going to be taking back is more of a real sense of what the lab environment is like. Back at school, the labs are really linear. It's do this, do that, and record your results. It's so structured that it's a lot harder to do your own problem solving.

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Week 7: July 13-17

Jonathan Padelford

This week I've worked a lot on my poster and we continued making copper and chromium samples. They just got a bigger machine and we're trying to figure out how to work with that. Everything is pretty much worked out, but we have to wait for a technical person to come out and install one program it needs. It put a little bit of a dent in what we're trying to do, because we want to make a bigger sample with that bigger power source.

It's kind of messed up to be part of all this progress and know I have to leave next week. If I could stay longer I definitely would. With this new machine it will just be so much easier to get a good look at the samples.

A lot the background of electrical chemistry is still over my head. It's all physical chemistry and I haven't taken that yet. It's still two more years from where I'm at right now. He gave me a book to read through but at the stage I'm at, it's hard to understand some of the principles and I don't really know what's going on. It has some of the same equations I learned in general chemistry, but they're more advanced derivatives of them. I have actually sat back from the book before and just been like, "I don't know what that says." Dr. Han explained some of the concepts I needed to know and it cleared up a lot.

There's a lot of inorganic chemistry that I'm learning about this summer; I take that class next semester. Working here this summer has pulled me further away from organic chemistry.

My poster is going pretty well. I got an early start on it so I wouldn't have to rush finishing, and I'm pretty close to being done. It seems like I was just coming here two weeks ago. It's kind of a bummer that it's ending this fast. It's been fun at times and other times it's been aggravating, but that's science.

Kayla Crosbie

We did a frequency sweep on the lithium niobate/germanium sandwich sample and it was actually successful. The resonance frequencies had very sharp points, so that means the wave attenuation in the glue layer is not significant enough to make this experiment impossible. This is very exciting to me because Alexey and I from the beginning weren't sure if doing resonant ultrasound spectroscopy on a sandwich material would work at all. The resonances are still a little off from the theoretical values, but I think it is just because the glue layer isn't very smooth. I had a lot of trouble gluing the samples together. It doesn't sound too difficult to take two things and have glue in the middle but the glue Alexey likes is very gooey and it dries really fast. Then the samples have to be perfectly centered and parallel and lined up just the way the previous sandwich was, because the relative orientation will yield different resonance frequencies. I'm not great with tweezers and tiny objects either – the plates are about 2x2 millimeters – so I look very awkward but got a good sandwich … after three hours.

This glue is difficult to use, but every scientist has a favorite glue I suppose, and I can see some benefits to his. Some of the other glues that people in my lab use that work at cryogenic temperatures as well seem to dry a lot harder, and I would imagine that would attenuate the waves more significantly.

We are still having a hard time analyzing our lithium niobate sample. We tried to change some parameters, including the size, to get it to match the theoretical value, but it is not as precise as it should be. It might not have been a very pure sample to begin with, and the company that grew the crystal did not specify the elastic constants, so our parameters may be off. To see if it is the glue or the lithium niobate sample causing the discrepancy, we're going to try to test a sandwich of two germanium samples to determine the effect of the glue without the variables of the lithium niobate sample.

TThursday my friends in the lab and some others went out to lunch to celebrate (graduate research assistant) Ryan Stillwell's successful prelim proposal. That was the first time I went out to lunch during work, and it was very delicious and a great time to get away for a little bit. I'm going to miss that group, and I'm really glad that I got to know some other scientists in addition to the other REUs because they have taught me a lot. Plus they are a lot of fun; as a rule I think all scientists are quirky.

I only have a few more days to finish my poster. I need to fix up a lot of my writing – I've never written anything scientific before and you need to be very concise. On my first draft, Alexey said I need to write for an audience that understands the known information. I'm of course learning most of this subject for the first time, so I'm presenting it in kind of an instructive way but it's things they are already familiar with. He also said that some of my language was too … excited. He said he understood that for me my successful data was exciting, but for my audience, these tests on stainless steel and aluminum are already known information. I'm not really sure what to change yet, but it's the most hilarious criticism I've ever gotten. I just have to present information that is known in a way that shows why I did those tests, and then I present the new information, like my tests on samples that are plates instead of bulk material or my tests on sandwiches, in the appropriately exciting manner. Then I will sound more like an expert.

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Week 6: July 6-10

Jonathan Padelford

We continued with the chromium and copper multilayering work, but instead of doing the process over a single day now we're doing it over two full days. We slowed the experiments down so that we can get the layers the thickness we need. It has made for some pretty long work – I've been here from nine to six every day this week. It's a lot of checking and waiting and making small adjustments.

We don't have our results yet from this longer experiment cycle, but I believe we had our first sample sent off. Although it takes longer now, the thicker plating definitely makes life easier in the end. It's easier to take off the substrate and it's not as brittle. When we were speeding it up, you could barely remove the material properly because it would just flake off. But now it's actually got some more strength to it.

I can't believe I only have two weeks to go. I'm not really done with what I'm working on, and I want to continue with it and see where it goes. They have been working on multilayering for a while, so someone else will keep doing the project. I think last year a postdoc was working on it, and I picked up where he left off.

In the slow times I've been working on my poster. I don't have the abstract or anything done yet, but I've been working explaining some of the controls for the work we've been doing, along with some background information to put the project in more of a context. Then next week I can fill in some more specifics.

Looking at Dr. Han's job, I think I'd like to go in a direction where I could spend more time in the lab. He has a lot of things going on, and it seems like it would be a distraction in the end. Later on in life I wouldn't mind it, but until then I'd rather be a lab rat. It's a lot more fun. As far as teaching goes, I don't think I have the kind of personality to deal with all the stresses a teacher goes through on a daily basis.

The lab part of the environment – actually doing the experiments and dealing with the materials – is definitely my favorite part. This has definitely helped shape what I want to look for in a science related job later on.

This has been awesome, and I'm glad I have a couple years left of undergraduate work so I can do a couple more programs like this.

Kayla Crosbie

Basically I'm finishing up with analyzing my last sample of lithium niobate and we're having some trouble getting the experimental results to match the theoretical values. We've been running a lot of fitting programs and changing different parameters. We're still not entirely sure how the sample is cut in relation to the lattice structure of the crystal. The method we used for the aluminum and germanium samples was unsuccessful because the list of frequencies for each orientation are both very similar, so it isn't obvious which one matches the experimental data better. We have been using the X-ray machine to figure it out, making a Laue-gram, which is an X-ray diffraction pattern, and comparing that image to a Laue-gram of a lithium niobate sample with a known cut. But the X-ray machine has been having complications.

Once we're done figuring out the lithium niobate sample's best parameters – those that model the sample with the closest resonance frequencies to the experimental data – we can glue it to the germanium sample to make a sandwich. If we can't match the theoretical frequencies to the experiment data better for lithium niobate, we can change the experiment to analyzing a germanium silicon sandwich, which would be much simpler.

I have been working less independently this week because I know enough to run the program, but not enough to address the problems that come up. So I will watch Alexey as he makes small changes and explains it to me as he goes along.

While the program runs I have been working on my poster. I'm also working on visually representing the data that I've collected so far making graphs. It's not that difficult but the graphing program is new for me so it takes longer than I expected. I'll spend the longest time trying to make, for example, lines that show the theoretical resonances on my graph, and it will end up being this obscure little trick in the way the data table is set up. Presenting data in the right way is turning out to be more difficult than collecting it.

One of my friends in my lab, Ryan, is working on his Ph.D., and he has been preparing for his prelim presentation for the project he wants to embark upon. It's been pretty cool to learn about the process of getting a doctorate and looking forward to how nerve-wracking presentations can be. I get nervous easily, so that will definitely be me in a few years.

I did get to meet with a theoretical physicist like I've been wanting to do – Simon Capstick at FSU took some time to talk with me. I asked him about what he did on a day-to-day basis as a theoretical physicist. He talked about when he was back in grad school and about different fields I could work in.

More time than I expected is spent learning about the area studied, and doing math problems by hand. You have to be able to understand the physics completely before being able to generalize it into a computer program. I really like this because I thought doing math problems by hand was too old school, and everything is done with computers. He talked about the frustrating times for a theorist, too, but the idea of spending weeks pulling your hair out over one problem is really exciting to me. I never like asking for help on my homework because I really enjoy the process of exhausting every possible mental route of solving a problem. I'm also glad he gave me some helpful advice on math and programming classes I should take so I can be the most prepared for grad school.

His bottom line was that it's a really difficult – and a really great – profession, and to me it sounds like the best thing ever. I think it is my destiny to be a theorist.

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Week 5: June 29-July 3

Jonathan Padelford

This week we started multilayering with chromium and copper. Yesterday was our first attempt at it and we were successful. Today we're working to create another sample to see if we can reproduce the results.

To be able to plate the chromium on top of the copper we used dual bath electrodeposition. This is where you have two different electrolyte solutions instead of having one single solution. We started off plating the copper onto our substrate (MP35N). Afterwards, we switched to the chromium solution, changed the anode to a lead bar, and plated the chromium on top of the copper.

Today we're just focused on doing it again. The copper takes a while to plate, so it takes two days to get the thickness we want to achieve. We started yesterday – normally we just plate the copper for five hours but we're trying out leaving it on overnight to see how thick the layer will plate. We're trying to keep the copper layers within 200 micrometers – once we can establish that we can plate the chromium.

This whole experience is going by extremely quickly. It seems like I was just starting out last week and now we're moved all the way into things they haven't really been able to produce yet. Overall this has definitely been a great experience.

My biggest takeaway from this so far has been learning about the lab environment and seeing the kind of things scientists do on a daily basis. You have to manage your time well. You have to realize that you are going to make mistakes and allow some flexibility for that. It's not always going to go the way you planed it go, and sometimes even figuring out what the mistake is in the first place can take a while.

You are going to have failures and you are going to have to be equipped to get over that. Some of those failures are because of little mistakes you make and some of them are things you can't help, like the machine or the power supply not operating correctly. Learning the patience to get through those kinds of moments and accepting them as part of research is probably one of the biggest lessons I'm going to take back to school.

Kayla Crosbie

This week I've mostly been analyzing my data, and I've started working on my poster. I feel good about getting started early – usually I procrastinate when it comes to writing.

I'm doing a lot of the same, but this week I'm using this 3D animation feature of the ANSYS analysis program. It shows how the sample oscillates at different resonant frequencies. We had two lists of frequencies for the same lithium niobate sample, one analyzed with the piezoelectric constants and one without. Looking at the list of frequencies, it appears that there is an extra resonance frequency in one list, or it could just be a coincidental number pattern. Since the sample oscillates uniquely at each resonance, I can find similar modes by observing the animation. Since I had to go through and compare 40 modes, I took notes on how the block moved, writing down which corner bent or edge twisted. But sometimes it was too complicated to break it down, so I would just write something like, "reminds me of a hippy dancing."

I've also been doing a lot data fitting with the ANSYS program. It takes a second to input the text file, but running the program can take a few hours, so I sometimes run out of tasks I can do without my computer.

I feel like my project is going along really well. I'm going to be doing the sandwich sample after this, and then I'll be finished.

A couple of days ago my friends from my lab made a deal with me that I could play with some liquid nitrogen if I baked them brownies. I didn't know you could hold it in your bare hands, but it forms an insulating layer of gas between you and the liquid. So it feels cold but not wet; instead it's almost fluffy. We supercooled a penny and I smashed it with a hammer. It's a pretty good souvenir.

I was a little frustrated with the lack of math, but I'm getting over it. This has definitely helped me see that I want to be a theoretical physicist, but I'm still going to be able to take away a lot of valuable experience and lab knowledge. A lot of the analysis I've been doing would be somewhat like being a theorist for the experimentalist's data. I have been enjoying this week more, compared to some of the more technical work I had been doing so far.

I've been learning little, new things every day from Alexey, too. Next week I'm going to go talk with one of the theoretical physicists at FSU and learn what sort of work a theorist does.

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Week 4: June 22-26

Jonathan Padelford

This week, we've been trying to plate chromium. Until yesterday it was a failure; it was going pretty badly. But yesterday we increased the amps running through the solution so it finally plated. The key was the rate at which it was being deposited.

At first, the solution didn't dissolve at all and I had to filter it. It was a thick solution so I ended up spending an hour and a half sitting still on a stool pouring solution into a filter. It was pretty bad. Thankfully I got all that out of the way, and ended up with a thick goo at the bottom.

Today we're going to go back and see if we can plate a larger chromium sample since mine was pretty small. If that works, then we're also going to try and plate copper on top of that.

I am learning something new from Dr. Han pretty much every day. I consult him before anybody, and we probably talk 30 minutes to an hour a day – he has helped with the analysis and figuring out what was going on in my samples as well as other things. He has a direction that he wants me to go in and he's starting to ask me what I think about it, and if there's anything I might do differently.

I'm definitely starting to get more comfortable day-to-day with the things I've been doing. The copper plating I feel like I could do any day, but the chromium is making life a lot more complicated. It will take a little time, but I know I can figure out a way to make it easier.

Kayla Crosbie

I am working on my own now and have mostly finished learning new information; I'm also about to get to work on my main project with the two glued samples.

I did learn a new method of determining how a crystal sample is cut just by doing a fitting program on the computer and changing which dimensions are X,Y and Z.

I will admit that I don't think I really enjoy being an experimental physicist. I liked it when I was learning new things, but once I've learned everything it seems very technical – that's just how experimental physics is. I realized that I haven't gotten to do any math since I've gotten here. I was asking around if this is what it's like for all experimental physics and people are saying yes, the computer does all the math. I'm starting to think that maybe I want to be a theoretical physicist instead, but I'm still enjoying being here. I just know I won't enjoy it as a career.

Thursdays are great because all the REUs, Jose and some Tallahassee people meet at the local bike shop, and we all go on bike rides together. The rides are pretty intense but they are a lot of fun. I wasn't really expecting a narrow trail ride over logs and roots – a little terrifying at first. I have a nice scrape from crashing, but I have been getting the hang of it. Definitely not ready for the jumps and technical trails yet though. There's a beginner's ride but don't be fooled by that name – the first one was 13 miles. Most have been easier, but it was fantastic.

I'm noticing the same thing here as I do in school. I look around in my physics classes and there will be about three other women. I've only taken lower division physics classes, but in two years or so even they might be gone because they're astronomy or geochemistry majors, or people on the K-12 teaching track that only need those basic physics courses. I'm starting to feel like in a year I'm going to be the only one.

Other than my high school teacher Mrs. Bradford, I've never had a female physics instructor at any level. I feel like it's a newer thing that women are engaging more in the hard sciences, so the only women older than me I've seen in my field are the teaching assistants who are still in grad school.

If I were to guess why, I think some of it is that it seems intimidating because there aren't any females in the first place, so women think it's not for them. It's one of those job fields that needs a Ph.D., which will take six or seven years, and it's a level of commitment that requires a lot of changes to the traditional path a woman might expect to take. Even getting a Master's degree is not enough for most physics careers, unless you take the engineering physics route. This is what really made me step back and reconsider how much I really like physics. But I think I will be able to be in school until I'm 30, or however long it takes me, because I enjoy operating at a sometimes stressful intensity.

I guess I have always liked doing things that guys like to do – for example I really like to skateboard. I like sort of breaking the mold.

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Week 3: June 15-19

Jonathan Padelford

I spent this week almost entirely on the electroplating, doing research on it and seeing how we could make it better and easier on us. We changed the solution this week. At first we thought it was pretty good because it made the structure smaller and everything. But then the compound we introduced embedded itself into the copper, so it caused the copper to be brittle. Because of this, we couldn't even scrape the copper off of the substrate. It would just rupture and fall apart. The first time it was really bad, the second time it was a little bit stronger, and on our third try our sample was completely ruined (but because someone turned off our power source).

We did finally get our other chemicals in, so we can make some other solutions. I'm going to be doing chromium plating next week. I also spent some time trying to track down some more chemicals. A lot of them I have never heard of, and one of the chemicals we were looking for can only be bought from China.

Working with Dr. Han is really good – he's pretty awesome. He helps me with anything I need help with, and we are learning a lot together. He hasn't used the machine that powers our experiments for a while, so we're learning to use it together and trying to figure out how to change its parameters to what we want. We had to contact the makers once, because the manual is vague.

Sometimes it's a little hectic and there's been a couple times I wanted to pull my hair out, especially when I walked in and saw that our sample was ruined. But it's pretty cool to see what all these scientists go through on a day-to-day basis.

I saw one guy last week who I know was here for 12 hours. When I came in that morning he was already working, and later in the night I had to come back to pick something up and he was still here. A lot of these guys are really intense, and you can tell they love what they're doing.

Yesterday all the REUs went and talked with the guy who runs the physics admissions for graduate students. He talked a lot about how to apply for graduate school, what they look for, and he explained the whole process. His talk was mainly about FSU's graduate physics program, but it's still good to hear about the graduate admissions process because it's so important if you're going to be a science major and you want a good job. Everyone in my field is going to have at least a Master's and probably a Ph.D.

Spending the time here really does help you to sort out the kind of a job you'd like to have. I was already leaning towards working in a lab, and this time at the Magnet Lab puts a stamp on that – toward starting out working in a lab and then maybe transitioning to teaching later on.

Kayla Crosbie

This week I learned how to use the X-ray machine – it's what I use to orient my crystal the way it needs to be cut. It's so cool There is an X-ray beam that strikes the crystal surface, and then you have this little remote control to adjust or rotate the crystal precisely. Then on the computer there is software that makes a lauegram, which is the X-ray diffraction pattern, which looks like static with some dots when it is read in real time. Then the image collected over a set time can be used to analyze the lattice structure of my crystal. It's a fun machine to use.

This week I did more of the same but I also got the opportunity to work some on my own. I really got some opportunities for some of my own problem solving with figuring out the set-up for cutting my crystal. Alexey explained some of the problems that will come up, and I had to draw a picture and figure out how I wanted to cut it. I liked being able to think of new methods and learn about the problems scientists face when dealing with crystals, since keeping the structure in tact is crucial for good measurements.

Also I got to investigate why the lattice parameters for one of my samples was given in hexagonal as opposed to trigonal coordinates, which is the crystal structure of the lithium niobate. Alexey sent me on an Internet quest to figure this out, and it was very difficult because I would have to read through a lot of content that was way over my head in terms of vocabulary specific to this field of physics.

I spent the day looking this up and learning more about crystals while I was at it. I'm not very good at skimming, so I couldn't help but get sidetracked with fairly unrelated articles about crystal properties that intrigued me. It was kind of one of the first times that I was curious about what I was doing and not just trying to keep up absorbing all this new information. It was cool to get to investigate something that didn't make sense, instead of just asking why. Also it's a basic science skill to be able to resolve why information that I look up on, for example, lattice parameters doesn't seem correct, or if information differs between sources.

I've been really happy with the level of work I've been getting to do. I feel like it's pretty difficult, but then it feels easy once I start putting what I read about into action in the lab and there's immediately something new to learn.

This week's lesson learned: Unlike in college, you can't go to sleep at 2 in the morning and then go to work. When you fall asleep in lecture it's OK. But when you fall asleep when someone's talking right to you, it's a little awkward. I still can't believe I did that. At about 3 p.m. I'm pretty sleepy, and around then Alexey was explaining something to me. I kept not realizing that my eyes were closing and one of the times I opened my eyes he was suddenly smiling but kept talking, and so I'm pretty sure he noticed.

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Week 2: June 8-12

Jonathan Padelford

I actually started some electroplating experiments this week. Dr. Han wasn't expecting me to get results right away, but I did get some usable results the first time, which was really cool. I also got some results that he had me reproduce so he could study them a little bit more. He wanted to see what was making the copper so hard to remove.

Electroplating copper is a lot like putting chrome on a motorcycle part – it's the same basic process. You mix a metal ion solution – the solution we're using is copper sulfate and sulfuric acid. In this solution you place an anode and cathode and hook them to a power supply. Once the power supply is hooked up, the current running into the solution allows the ions to reduce and plate the metal or other substrate connected to the cathode. It also replenishes the ion supply by stripping the substance on the anode of ions. The process sounds more complicated than it is – you pretty much hook up two electrodes, run electricity though them and wait for however long you want to plate the material.

We're trying to make the structures as small as we can. Dr. Han wants to be able to produce copper nanostructures. I have made a couple samples, but we haven't actually looked at any to see what size structures we have made.

I've been getting a computer hooked up to let me use LabVIEW. I also went through our lab to check out what chemicals we have and what would have to be ordered to run the next experiments: Later on, Dr. Han wants us to try not just copper but a copper and cobalt, or copper and chromium mix. So it will be plated with two different things, and I need to figure out what chemicals we'll need to accomplish that.

Dr. Han gave me this thick book of the chemicals to either go through or go online. Some of the prices are kind of ridiculous – you start to figure out why lab budgets can be so expensive. Of course at my school we (the students) aren't buying our own chemicals, so it's cool to see this part of it – where these things come from.

Some of the things people in the lab take for granted I am still getting used to. Earlier this week I was working alone in the lab and one of the pressure release valves on the dewars went off and I about ran out of the lab. Of course then I found out what it was. I also made an alarm go off in the lab – the vent hoods here are different than the ones at my school and when I lifted it, it went off until I could find somebody to show me how to get it to turn off.

It seems like everybody I meet here is a physicist and as soon as they learn that I'm in chemistry they start poking fun. There is definitely some friendly rivalry. I have been needing to come up with some comeback jokes so I'm not just getting teamed up on by the others.

Kayla Crosbie

Pretty much this week I've been learning about crystals. I get to cut my samples with a wire saw to a certain dimension and clean them. Then I measure the density and the resonance frequencies. I just place the sample between these two transducers connected to a frequency generator that vibrates the sample. Then the oscillations are detected by the other transducer, and I use this software, LabVIEW, to sweep through a range of frequencies and find the resonances, which are peaks on the graph. Then using another software I can run a mathematical analysis to find elastic constants of my material.

I've also learned how to use a modeling program called ANSYS. It kind of works backwards from the other process. It will give me a 3D model of my crystal and then tell me what my resonance frequency should be from the information I give it, like the elastic constants, density and piezoelectric constants. It does another cool thing too: You can put in the frequencies and it will visually show you exactly how it vibrates at those frequencies. Sometimes it bends vertically, and sometimes it twists.

Just this past couple of days I've gotten to do a little of the work on my own from start to finish. I've also been learning about piezoelectricity, so I've been spending some time in the lab by myself reading books.

The crystals I'm using are basically little tiny cubes or plates that are one to two millimeters in length. As opposed to a material that's isotropic (which means it's the same in all directions, say something like stainless steel), this one has a structure within it – a signature pattern in the way that the atoms are oriented. One really hard thing is that you have to be super careful with them because even small vibrations will partially destroy the structure and make my measurements less accurate. I have to measure the length, width and height with a micrometer and the mass to find the density. I have these little tweezers and I'm trying not to let my hand shake and I move it around and of course trying not to drop it and break it completely. But I just have to relax, maybe listen to Pandora, and not think about it, like when I paint. Then it's easy to keep my hand still. The crystal samples look just like a normal metal or some like glass – it's not like a geode slice, which is what I imagine when I think of a crystal formations.

I think so far the lab has been about what I expected – I am using a computer a lot, but I also get to use some machinery and work with my hands about equally.

We have had some time to get around Tallahassee a little more. I've been out to some restaurants and to church and we went bowling on campus, which was a lot of fun. And Waffle House, open at three in the morning, is also a good thing. We also checked out a farmer's market and picked up some fruits and vegetables, and there was some jazz music going on.

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Week 1: June 1-5

Jonathan Padelford

At my college, my organic chemistry professor is friends with Jose (Sanchez, who coordinates the lab's REU program). My professor thought I would be interested in coming here, and once I saw the Web site I knew this is what I wanted to do this summer.

Since I've been in school the only thing that has ever really interested me is science. I guess it started with the general science classes you have in elementary school. What really got me into science was chemistry in 10th grade. From then on I knew what I wanted to do. I had taken physics and everything, but I really liked everything about chemistry. It's more useful than people think, and it offers a lot of different types of careers.

When I first got here we had two days to get used to the town and campus before we started work at the lab. I still don't know my way around because Tallahassee is a little bit bigger than my town, and my campus is tiny compared to FSU. Monday when we got to the lab they took us through orientation and showed us around the lab.

I wasn't really sure what to expect, and now that I'm here, this place is crazy. I've never been in a laboratory like this. I go to a small school that just got its first mass spectrometer and small NMR, and here there are large NMR machines, lasers, electron microscopes and other scientific hardware. The 900 MHz NMR here is just awesome, as well as the 45 tesla hybrid magnet. I have never seen anything like that.

I would like to work in a place like this when I get older, so it's really a perfect experience for me. When I first started talking to professor Han about what I'd be doing it kind of scared me a little because I didn't know a whole lot about it, but he's been really helpful and gotten me through the tough starting points.

Prof. Han started me off with a couple of things to read, so I've been reading for the past two days. Then yesterday we got to get started on the actual science part of it. He showed me around the lab and then we got started making solutions.

The topic that Prof. Han gave me is really interesting and I want to know about that. Right at this moment it is just basically over my head. What he does with plating copper and chromium is really interesting and I want to learn a whole bunch more about that.

I didn't think there would be a huge amount of people here, but you start looking down the hallways and the amount of personnel is crazy. It's really cool to see these people are being published all over the world and working with people from everywhere.

Kayla Crosbie

I knew when I was a junior in high school that I wanted to be a physicist for sure. I had liked science for a while, but physics especially was the most interesting conceptually for me. Double-majoring in math seemed like a good idea if I decide to be a theoretical physicist, but I also just really love math. When I bought my linear algebra book for last semester and saw all of the math books, it was a moment when I wanted to stop time to read them all.

Coming to the Magnet Lab is something I've been really excited about since I was told I got the job. I'm into electromagnetism and cryogens, and that interest in cryogens is part of the reason I decided to go to CU, where a professor is a Nobel laureate in that field, so it made sense to expand on it this summer. I really do get kind of depressed when it's summertime and there's no physics homework to do. I'd just end up going to the library and checking out some books. I was just waiting for June, to get to Florida.

The Magnet Lab is fantastic. In some ways the lab has been a lot like what I expected – this huge place with a ton of lab equipment and a ton of people from different fields. I'm in a little apartment-style dorm that is shared with the seven students from out of state, so I am getting to know all of them really well.

The magnets didn't really look like what I had imagined. I had never seen one before. I guess I thought they would look more like, I don't know, a satellite dish sort of thing where you could walk on top of it or get more inside it, with a big central core. During our safety test, it had something about not spending too much time on top of the magnet, so my imagination went from there. But they meant the platform where you can stand on the top. The magnets are more like a big metal tube, which makes sense if I had thought about how a regular electromagnet looks.

I'm hoping spending the summer out here will help me narrow my field of interest a little bit. I don't know if I want to go the experimental physics route or the theoretical physics route. I've taken physics classes, but it's nothing like this. So for me this is kind of a way to explore what sort of a job I would like to have some day.

While I'm here, I'm going to be doing resonant ultrasound spectroscopy and I'm going to learn a lot about crystals as well. I'll also get to learn how to do computer analysis and modeling.

Even in this first week it's amazing how much I've learned and seen already. My mentor is really knowledgeable and he has taken the time to teach me things outside our research focus. Almost everything I'm doing is outside of the knowledge I have from physics classes I have taken so far, but my mentor has given me books and articles to read and has taken time to answer my questions. I'm not in over my head, even though I thought I would be, but this week has been challenging.

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For more information about the Mag Lab's REU program contact Jose Sanchez at sanchez@magnet.fsu.edu or (850) 645-0033.