Experience of a Lifetime

So I've been back for a little over a week now...and I miss it a lot! I mainly miss being outside as often as before. I'm not under house arrest, but going out into a Raleigh subdivision is a little bit different than opening your door and seeing the Dead Sea, ibexes, mountains, or the Mediterranean. Not to mention I forgot that NC may be a bit cooler (temperature wise, mind you) than Israel, but it's significantly more humid (ick). Anyway, in this past week I've been thinking about how I've changed and what I've gained. I can't put all of it into words, but I've described the salient points below:

The nature of the program didn't really allow us to know a daily schedule until the day of. Normally I am the person who needs a plan well in advance, but that wasn't an option. I learned to go with the flow, and be prepared for anything from a hike to a swim to doing science. Life is a lot less stressful when you don't concern yourself with plans and schedules.

I discovered the tranquility of nature, and life - without technology. At first the prospect of no internet for a week was unnerving, but it's not like I could do anything but accept that, so I did. Being cut off from the world is a nice feeling; try it sometime.

I was reminded of how much I take for granted. Cold water, water in general, fruit for breakfast, etc. I appreciate the little things a lot more now.

Basically I was taken out of my comfort zone in a variety of ways (physically, intellectually, socially), and sometimes it was rough, but looking back on it, I couldn't be more thankful.

Thanks for reading my blog, and you can check out pictures at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/shalinilc/Israel2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKX0hqP6zOzbWQ&feat=directlink

Desert Survival

I did it! I survived, and had a lot of fun! In summary, we went on some pretty intense hikes, saw a nature reserve (with many endemic flora and fauna), learned a lot about the Dead Sea (and floated in it), climbed Masada (religiously/historically significant mountain), toured Masada, visited a Bedouin village, and went for a camel ride :D

Random things I'd like to share:

- It was a rocky desert, not sandy like you picture it in the movies and such. 'Twas also a "fake" desert -> "real" deserts get cold at night; "fake" ones stay hot all hours.
- the most beautiful place I've ever seen
- we watched moonrise the night we were camping in the desert: The moon looked full, and seeing it come over the mountains was epic. If that wasn't epic enough, the next day we climbed Masada around 4am, so as to watch sunrise. Brilliant - make sure you check out the pictures!
- It would reach around 43 degrees Celsius around mid-afternoon in the desert. We would swim in waterholes whenever we found waterfalls while hiking, and be COMPLETELY dry within 5 minutes (I kid you not. There was literally no point in bringing a towel on hikes).
- Hiking didn't always involve a trail: i.e. the "trail" would be an arrow pointing up a cliff, and you'd just climb up the cliff...
- I'd open my door and see ibexes. That was cool
- The desert Kibbutz next to the field school had plants growing from all over the world (Mexico, Madagascar, Japan, etc). Anything is possible in the desert....
- ...except cold water. It'd take too much effort to cool the water, so showers would always be tepid. I remember when I discovered this fact after a long day of hiking -> I couldn't wait for a cold shower. Then I learned to just be thankful the water shortage wasn't so bad as to not allow for frequent showering.

In short: the experience of a lifetime. I know I never would have been to the Judean desert otherwise, and I'm really glad I had such a fantastic experience!

Link to pics:
http://picasaweb.google.com/shalinilc/Israel2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCKX0hqP6zOzbWQ&feat=directlink

The Dead Sea is Dying

Seriously, it is. The first day in the desert we spent a lot of time learning about the Dead Sea - how it was formed, what people use it for now, how it's disappearing, and what the future may hold for it. This is why the Dead Sea gets its own post :).

Quick Facts:
- Dead Sea = lowest place on Earth (>420m below sea level)
- It isn't really a sea, but actually a lake (the "Sea" name comes from the Bible)
- It loses 1m a year to evaporation
- The northern part is the main "Sea" - the southern part has been reduced to evaporation pools that aren't continuous
- Israel's biggest industry is around the Dead Sea products (skin care, etc)
- Its salt concentration is 33%
- Its name comes from the fact that nothing can survive given the salinity (but a few halophilic organisms were found to survive there, making it the "Almost" Dead Sea).

The Sea is quite beautiful, because, at least from the Israel side, around you is the desert, but you look over and see the Sea and beyond it are the mountains of Jordan. We spent several hours around it, just floating around, and then learning about it. Floating in it is a most interesting sensation - you don't put any effort into it at all! You can even float in a vertical position without having to tread water! Luckily I didn't have any cuts, but for my friends who had some scratches from our morning hike...I saw them go out running after a few seconds in the water.

As for the future of the Dead Sea...the problem is that the Jordan River should flow into it, but the water shortage in Israel and Jordan means that both countries get their water from this river. Basically nothing is left to feed into the sea, hence it is evaporating at the rate of 1m a year. It was really scary to see the line marking where the sea was in 1984 (several kilometers away from the sea today. Pictures are uploading as I type). There are countless discussions going on regarding options to save it, such as making a canal from the Mediterranean or Red Sea. Both have significant drawbacks, politically, geographically, and biologically, but the problem can't be indefinitely ignored. A lot of people argue to let nature fix itself, but since humans are already involved in creating the problem (with the Dead Sea product industry), shouldn't they be involved in the solution? And it's not like the industry can be stopped - it's one of Israel's biggest. In summary, the future of the Dead Sea is between a rock and a hard place, and not just because the sea is between a desert and mountain range ;)

On a yacht in Eilat where it's hot

Sorry for the hiatus - after all of my adventures in the last week, I didn't have time to blog, and now I'm back home and not used to spending time on the computer! This is the first of a few posts that are coming up (I will have at least one on the desert and one on my final reflections).

Back to Eilat: The reason they took us there was to relax, and become acclimatized to the heat (Eilat is in one of the southernmost parts of Israel, so it's about the same temperature as the desert). Relaxation included snorkeling in the Red Sea the first day, and a yacht on the second day.

Yes, we had a yacht to ourselves all day the second day. The top deck was open, but had a canopy so we didn't fry. The view was magnificent, and we could go banana boating or parasailing. I went banana boating, which was a blast! I only fell off when we capsized, but the water was a welcome savior from the heat. A few hours before lunch, we just sort of stopped in the middle of the sea, and we could jump out for a swim, or slide down the inflatable water slide on the side of the yacht (pretty crazy!). We had lunch on the dining room floor, and then headed back to the main port. After lunch, when most of us went back up to the main deck, someone brought out sliced watermelon, which was the perfect touch!

That brings me to another thing that I noticed - when fruit is served. I consider fruit to be something typically served with breakfast, or as a snack. Fruit is _never_ served with breakfast in Israel, but always after lunch and dinner as a dessert. That makes a lot more sense to me, and it really is a great dessert! The most commonly served fruits were melon, grapes, plums, apples, and oranges. I miss the fruit a lot. . .

The yacht was the main thing in Eilat, since we were only there for 1.5 days. It was fun, relaxing, and hot. The perfect transition to the desert...

Research reflections

I've been thinking a lot about my research experiences, so I thought I might as well blog about them. .. I break the experiences into three periods: the Howard Hughes program at Duke (from 6/2009 to 8/2009), Research in Chemistry (Rchem) at NCSSM (8/2009-2/2010) and now the International Summer Science Institute at the Weizmann Institute (7/2010). I am really thankful for all three because they've shown me how different research can be in different size labs, different working environments, and the lessons you learn from different mentors. I already blogged about my experience at Duke, but basically that was a pretty small lab, but I had so much independence and really felt a sense of responsibility for that project. That's why I worked so hard on it for so long, and I would take care of my research responsibilities before anything else. In Rchem I learned, acquired, and practiced the skills that research requires: organization (setting weekly goals), reading (and understanding) the literature, and communication (whether it be abstract, poster, paper, or powerpoint). The Howard Hughes program sort of hinted at these skills, I developed them extensively in Rchem, and I finally have to implement them "on my own" here at the Weizmann Institute (of course I still have my mentor for input and guidance, but I don't have anything remotely like the research 'network' at NCSSM). I get frustrated with how short the program is, and the lack of independence I have, but I understand why. My mentor at Duke was the PI of the lab, my professor at school was an experienced scientist and teacher, and my mentor now is a masters student - all very different but very amazing women.

We'll see what UNC has in store for me :o)

Side note: we just had a lecture about all the fun, amazing stuff we'll get to do in the desert, and Dead Sea. I'm super stoked!!!

A culture without boundaries

So in keeping track of quotes that I find very interesting (or entertaining), the title of this post is referring to something the vice president of the Weizmann Institute said ("Science is a culture without boundaries") and I found that really interesting. Despite all the various nationalities represented in this program, you can always have ridiculously intense conversations about anything from particle physics to environmental ecology.

As to phrases I've gathered in the lab, "real chemists work in the hood" (I think that's just the way of convincing us to be safe with the chemicals) and "chemists are too good for micropipetters." I guess my research last summer was biology/biochem, and not chemistry. When I asked my mentor why she was so anti-micropipetters, her response was that since they are calibrated for water, they're only useful for water. Chemists use real chemicals. I've also discovered, from my own lab experience, that biologists use plastic microcentrifuge tubes, as compared to chemists using glass vials. And one more: Biologists use plastic transfer pipettes, chemists use glass pasteur pipettes. I still love bio though :o)

I will try and simplify my project as much as possible, and if you want more details as to the actual molecules and their interactions, comment/email me and I'll either reply with an email or just make a new blog post about it. Essentially we are building layers on top of either a silicon, quartz, or indium tin oxide slide (glass covered with indium tin oxide (ITO), so it serves as an electrode). Cleaning and prepping the slides is a rather long and arduous endeavor, but once that is done, we prepare the monolayer on top. Then after more cleaning processes, we make multilayers on top of the monolayer by soaking the slides in solution of BPEB (organic compound) or a palladium solution (PdCl2 [PhCN]2). Multilayers self-assemble on the monolayer ("self-assemble" meaning we don't have to superheat the solutions or use catalysts, etc. We literally just prepare the various solutions and drop in the slides). After each "layer" we collect data, and the final layer (the "whipped cream" on top of our tiramisu slide, if you will ;o) is osmium (after which we collect much more data). For silicon slides we see how light reflects off using an ellipsometer. For quartz slides we use a UV-vis to observe light absorption. I'm not really sure what happens with the ITO yet. . .The basic idea is that there are several layers of organic compound alternating with Pd, and BPEB which conduct electricity to the osmium, even though Pd isn't electro-active in the conditions we used. My mentor, Ariella, is thus trying to figure out how this happens, and what the electron-transport mechanism is, so then these multilayers can be used in electronic devices (i.e. if your motherboard screws up, right now you'd have to get a complete new one, and the old one is trash. If these multilayers were used, then you could "refresh" the chips in your motherboard by putting them back in solution and regrowing the conductive multilayer).

We use a lot more instrumentation to characterize/understand the multilayers after they are complete, but since we only finished the multilayer yesterday, I don't exactly know what comes next. . .

Holiest of Holy

Holy. . .! No, really, that essentially sums up the past 2.5 days I've spent in Jerusalem, which has been a rather intense experience. First of all I'm still trying to get over the fact that I went into the lab today. Sunday here is like our Monday; the weekend here is Friday/Saturday, and Sunday starts the working week. It's weird to think about, no? Anyway, Jerusalem. . .

Tunnels:
First thing on the Jerusalem agenda was the City of David. This is the old/original Jerusalem, underneath which is an extensive tunnel system. The tunnels were meant to essentially safeguard the water supply in the event of war, so that no enemies could cut it off. We walked for about 45 minutes through pitch black tunnels that were usually about only 1.7m high (but it varied). I hit my head loads of times, but the cold water felt nice though (at times it was waist-deep, but mostly it was below my knee).

Western Wall:
The Western Wall is the holiest place for Jews. It represents the western wall of the platform that King Harod build on top of Foundation Rock (for Christians/Jews: where Adam and Eve came down, for Muslims: where Mohammad ascended into heaven). On top of the platform he built the 2nd temple (later destroyed by the Romans). We took a tour through the tunnels at the base of the wall, and our tour guide was excellent. He told us a very moving story about an old man that came to work as a guide at the wall, because he (the man) had survived Auschwitz.

Important Religious Places:
It's weird for me to think about the fact that I touched the marble table that the Christians consider to be where Jesus was resurrected from, and I walked by the cave that he was kept in. We went to the Holy Sepulcher, and Mary's tomb, and some other important places. I wish I knew more about Christianity (now that I know so much about Judaism), so I could have appreciated that experience more. Now that I think about it, most of what I do know about it is from studying European art. . .

Yad Vashem (Holocaust Museum):
This is by far the most well thought-out building/museum in the world. Our guide explained that the triangular prism shape of the museum is significant because it repesents half of the star of David, and going through the museum is like going through a time line. The prism gets narrower as you reach "The Final Solution" but then it opens up to look out over the valley (representing hope for the future). There is just so much significance in the architecture alone, and there's no way I can explain how well the exhibits and artifacts (and how many there are) are displayed. I highly recommend looking at the website (yadvashem.org), and visiting Jerusalem just for this museum (you can take a virtual tour online in the meantime). We learn about the facts and what happened in school, but this experience was so emotional in how it emhasized the lives of the individuals.

The children's memorial was a separate building outside (dedicated/funded by a family whose son died in Auschwitz). It was essentially a dark room filled with mirrors, and there were an infinite number of reflections of candles. A voice reads off the names of children that died (1.5 million of them). The significance of that is that when one child is killed, an entire universe is lost (his children, grandchildren, etc), and so whenever a name is read, the room and the infinite candles represent his universe.

Intense.

On a happier note -> Fun Fact: I ate dinner at the restaurant that recently (Jan 2010) set a Guiness World Record for most hummus served at once (>9000lbs). The hummus there was excellent!

I'll talk about science-research things soon, I promise. I do actually work, as hard as that is to believe ;)