The lecture on this day was about controlling malignant stem cells, specifically those present in tumors. Although some parts were difficult to understand due to the speaker's accent, I found this talk to be quite interesting as it presented some counterintuitive ideas. Even though my background in biology is not as strong as, say, chemistry, I was still able to understand the lecture and learn quite a bit from it as well.
In the lab, we started following a new procedure because the old one wasn't working to our satisfaction. We devoted a great deal of time to the pursuit of locating a particular key polymer necessary for this new procedure, including hunting down a woman from another lab group who was in possession of a small bottle of the material. Unfortunately, she was impossible to locate, but close study of our own chemical inventory revealed that somehow, we had this chemical in our stock -- something that shouldn't have been so surprising given that we have the most random, useless materials in our lab, including paint brushes and bottles labeled "potato".
After a rousing game of "Find That Chemical", I began the new procedure in earnest. The excitement did not last long, because many of the steps involved things like placing the wafer in the oven for an hour or so, which meant things proceeded very slowly. While I waited for the wafer to bake (so to speak), I occupied myself with my best friend, the ellipsometer.
