California

Welcome to the California Science Blog. Beginning April 17th visit this location to read the students thoughts and discoveries.

Day 1 - April 16th Santa Barbara UCSB

Today was the first day on our Nanotech escapade. Mainly we were traveling courtesy of our beautiful faculty members, and our massive Kia mini vans. When we finally arrived at UCSB we were exposed to a preview of the Nanotechnology information that we will be using over the next few days. Some key learning facts of the day were Angstrom which is 1/10th of a nanometer. What is a nanometer you may be asking? A nanometer is 1 x 10-9. We also learned that in our labs we will be working with a "wafer" which is a large piece of Silicon that has been stretched and then cut into circular pieces that take the shape of a paper thin CD. After a short lecture on Nanotechnology itself we did a few activities. The first activity we did involved a clothes pin line and pictures that ranged from pollen to a football field. We then had to take the pictures and arrange them from smallest to biggest. From then we learned that the smallest thing a human eye can capture is a red blood cell. The second activity was to teach us how the machines we will be using work. So we did activities based on all of our senses minus our sight. Shortly afterwards we started to work on our commercials that included different uses of Nanotechnology. The final definition that we learned today was characterization which means using a machine to image the atomic surface of the substance you're looking at. We are looking forward to the clean labs, and performing our commercials tomorrow!

--Barrett & Rose

Day 2: UCSB April 17, 2010

We were awake bright and early today and went to UCSB again, and we began our day performing the commercials we came up with yesterday. The commercials advertised nanotechnology products. One specific commercial was Colin, Chris, and York Mata, it was on the product flex power, which uses nanotechnology in the cream. This technology makes it sink into the muscles that are sore and makes them relaxed.

Next we were about to begin the lab, but first we discussed the procedure we would be attempting...

Nanofabrication is to make things on a nanoscale, and when she was describing it, it sounded quite difficult to say the least. However we did it.

Photolithography uses light to draw on rocks and we also did this procedure, but instead of rocks we used silicon in the lab.

Then we went into the lab. We were in a clean room and to be in a clean room you must wear a clean suit. We looked especially nice in those, goggles, hair nets, booties, and full body suits! Then we were walked through the steps of how to do the procedure that sounded impossible. Tomorrow, we have to complete the same procedure except we will be on our own! Good thing we were paying attention ;)

At 5 we went back to the hotel to eat pizza and rest up for tomorrow's big day!

-Love, Colin and Miranda.

Day 3: UCSB April 18, 2010

This morning we woke up nice and early, at 6:30 so that we could be ready to leave for our exciting lab day at Chip Camp. We started the day out by refreshing our memories of the procedures that we had done yesterday, so that we would be safe in the lab and know what we were doing. Then we did an activity with Legos that walked us through the process of photolithography (when you etch a picture on to a rock or other surface).

Once the lab guides were sure that we could perform the basics of the lab successfully, we talked about what we would be doing in the lab today. The goal of today's individual lab work was to try out a variable and see how it affected the result. In the lab, we did the same thing we did yesterday, but we each changed something in the procedure.

I made two different samples, creating a chip that was a control and followed the original procedure precisely and another one where I changed how long I left it under the UV light. Before going into the lab, we had to write down a hypothesis guessing what the result of our variable would be. Sean's variables were changing the amount of time in the acid, lessening the amount of photo resist, and not putting any of the HMDS onto on of my samples.

Once we were finished testing and creating our different samples, we looked at them under an optical microscope to see if our hypotheses were correct. A picture of Sam's resistor is below. Finally, we went outside in our attractive suits and took a picture before degowning.

Hopping into the vans, we started our drive to LA where we are staying the night, tonight and will be continuing our science adventure in the morning at USC (apparently Bara!k Obama will be at USC tomorrow too - should be interesting).

Sincerely from the nanoscale,

Ilana and Sean

Day 4: USC Marine Institute Los Angeles, CA

The day started out by waking up at 6:30 am. We ate breakfast and then drove to USC. When we arrived at USC, we went to the Alan Hancock Foundation Building. We were met by our guide, Linda Chilton, who explained to us what we were going to do for the next two days . Then she talked to us about microbial organisms and the fact that the city of LA is a flood plain and how rivers were cemented in the 1920s by the army. Dr. Sergio Sanudo-Wilhelmy, a professor at USC, came in and talked to us about trace elements and how iron was needed in the ocean for the animals to get blooms and photosynthesis. He also talked about how they were adding iron sulfide to the ocean. We then split up into groups and our group went to Dr. Andrew Gracey where he showed us studies in which they compared the DNA of muscles to the RNA on slides. Our group got done early, so we waited for the second group to come back. Then we walked to lunch where there were many places to chose from at USC. We chose Baja Fresh. Then we walked a couple of blocks to the California Science Museum. Since, Barock Obama was coming to town, we had to walk the long way around to the science museum. We saw a kelp tank and how they had to created there own surge to make sure the kelp would be able to survive in a tank. We got to talk to the person in charge of managing the water chemistry and life support for the kelp tanks. After we had the presentation, we got to walk around the science museum where there were many different ecosystems. On our way back to USC, we saw many Secret Service and LAPD cars parked along side the road. When we arrived back to the Hancock Foundation Building, we split back into two groups. Our group went to two labs where we learned about bacteria in the ocean. After the tour, we came back to the Hancock Foundation Building, there were cookies for us. The other group met with Dr. ? and reviewed their studies of copepods and how they are a indicator species for changes in the ocean. We then returned to our vans and drove back to the hotel. For dinner, we went to a Japanese restaurant, Kabuki. After dinner, we went to the mall for a total of 30 minutes. After the mall, we returned to our hotel and went to bed for an early start the next morning.

Angelica and York

Day 5: Boat ride to the island

Our day started at 5 am and had breakfast on the go. Later, we got to the boat and met our guide. When we got to the dock we took samples of the water on the mainland with a net and bottle. Skimming the surface of the water we collected the many sorts of plankton, algae, etc. Then we also took a Secchi Disk, which is a round disk attached to a rope. You drop the disk until you can not see the disk anymore and that is the clarity. The second thing the Seche Disk does is depending on the color of the water it tells us how much phytoplankton is in the water. Then we took our long journey on the boat to the island. When we arrived to the island we repeated the steps we did at the mainland to find the differences from the areas. Going into USC on the island we all started with the touch tank. This tank had many fish, crabs, lobster, sea cucumbers, sea slugs, sharks, etc. After, we went to the labs to look at zooplankton under the microscope and briefly talked about the rocks near the island. We also test the pH of our water samples and discussed how the pH may affect the species we saw at the dock and island. Then closer to noon we went on a hike and learned about many of the plants on the island. We ended up tasting a purple flower that tasted like an onion, a yellow flower that tasted like mustard, and the oat grass that tasted like oat. Noon = lunch. After lunch we learned about some of the grad and undergrad student's projects as well as glyders. Glyders are turbo looking machines that glide along the ocean for 2-3 weeks. This machine is around $150,000 and has a bouyency sensor so it will calculate pressure and continue along the ocean to the mainland or the island. This machine is designed to make sure it does not hit anything in the ocean and will be tracked by a gps programed in the device if lost. It is now 10:30 and we are going to sleep.

Goodnight,

Lian and Yorke

Day 8: Berkeley Campus

We started our day bright and early at 8 AM, leaving by 9 to take the walk over to Berkeley, one of the country's premier colleges. We went on a tour of the prestigious campus, taking stops to look at the massive bell tower, South Hall (the oldest building on campus), and a ton about the Berkeley spirit and the Golden Bears. Apparently, the Stanford Berkeley rivalry is quite intense, and every year when they get close to the Berkeley vs. Stanford football games, tempers flare and pranks are abundant. But Berkeley is better known for the protests that took place in the 1960's, protesting everything from freedom of speech to against the Vietnam War. The students would chain themselves to the doors to prevent administrative staff from entering their offices. This prompted the removal of door handles all throughout campus, and this is still evident today. Only front doors have a door handle, and double doors only have one. All exits have no exterior door handles as a memorial to those protesters.

After being released from the tour at 11:30, we were allowed to roam around a small area of campus, and seeing as it was Earth Day, there were quite the number of protests for the environment going on in the area we were in. That was quite a spectacle.

After returning to the campus after lunch, we met with Nancy Finkle, who taught to us about the admission processes in Berkeley, ranging everywhere from how to manage our majors to how to even apply at this college. After that, we had a graduate student come in and speak about her studies of the Tuco Tuco, a small guinea pig-like animal that lives in Argentina. We learned about the peculiar behaviors of these social animals, and how they lived in packs, but were filled with mainly females and only one male.

After our time at Berkeley, we returned to the hotel for down time, until dinner at a small cafe called Bread Factory, which was a local restaurant serving soups and sandwiches and a few others. We finished off our night with a quick stop at the local grocery store, and returned home for a good night of rest.

Signing off,

Chris and Sam

Day 7: Advanced Light Source (ALS) and the Wharf

On a bright Friday morning, we awoke to leave at 7:45 A.M. We took an arduous adventure to the "Blue Uphill" bus stop. This took us to the Berkeley Laboratories where we learned about the Advanced Light Source, also known as, ALS. When we arrived at building 7, Dale introduced us to the updated periodic table. The most recent element founded is Copernium (Cn). Then we learned about the differences between a normal light bulb and a fluorescent light bulb. A normal light bulb uses a Tungsten filament which is heated by the electricity fueling it, thus creating a weak spectrum and a really hot bulb. The flourescent light bulb uses several types of Phosphorus powder to create a stronger spectrum than the normal light bulb. After a short introduction about x-rays and electrons speeding up inside the ALS in order to create light, we made our way over to the lab itself. We toured the inside of the lab which was built in the 1930's and understood how to view items at the molecular level. We viewed a couple stations that looked at protein strands and really small spider fangs. After learning about the machine that speeded up electrons to near the speed of light, we ventured to the "Window Lab". It was there that we learned how to create super effiecently insulated windows. We learned that creating air pockets between the two panes of glass creates a better window for us Arizonians, due to the fact that it retains heat beautifully. Finally, we watched a few experiments involving LIQUID NITROGEN!!!!!!!!!! We places a banana, balloon, and a penny into tubs of LIQUID NITROGEN!!!! We learned that LIQUID NITROGEN freezes anything it comes into direct contact with due to the fact that it is -279ºC (Which is close to absolute 0 or 0º Kelvin). The best part was smashing each object placed into the tubs into tiny itty bitty pieces.

At Fishermans Wharf we split into small groups of at least 2 people, and walked around doing whatever we wanted for 3 hours. Ilana, Nikki, Yorke, and I (Laura) had many amazing adventures. We ditched the boys, claiming that we wanted a girls day out, and decided to go to on a 4D adventure with Dinosaurs and Spongebob. Alyx (and guys) went to the Pier market for dinner, and he got Ilana a nice gift. Now, we are back at the hotel writing this blog instead of sleeping, which is what we really need to do.

Sincerely Missing You,

Laura and Alyx