Day 74 - "Ezra's plunging our toilet!"

This morning I headed to the presentations far more relaxed now that my own was done. I went to grab some coffee and found myself joining Tess and Ester. Only Eszter ordered coffee, but there was some confusion and they prepared two, charging her for one only. My free coffee in hand, we left together.

The presentations today began with Tamara, and ended with Daniela. Almost everyone went slightly over, so we finished rather late. Everyone gathered outside the auditorium for an official group picture, which made me happy and sad at the same time. Here we were, bantering with each other after really getting to know one another, together, in a comfort zone that would soon dissolve as each of us headed home to our various corners of the earth. We would never, ever all find ourselves in the same place like this again.

The photographer snapped a few shots, then we all got up. After a bit of chatting and making plans for the evening, everyone went their separate ways. Jonathan, Daniela and I lingered a few moments longer, but at that point Noa and Sari, accompanied by her parents and children, came up the path. They had apparently been looking for me all day, and when I returned to the lab it became apparent why: they had planned a surprise get-together for me to say good bye to the entire group, but, being as I was at presentations all morning, I had failed to show up. I felt incredibly guilty about this, but the food and drinks were still there, as was most of the group, so we sat and chatted and made up for the lack of party in the morning. Erica, who was apparently the driving force for the celebration, had already left for the day, but I would thank her tomorrow for everything.

At around 3:15, I headed with Noa and her friend to Café Madaa for a late afternoon snack. Tali, Noa’s roommate, arrived just as we got down to an interesting conversation topic: creationism, and intelligent design, which evolved into religion and prayer in schools. This carried us far into the meal and on into my next date, which also happened to be at Café Madaa: cake with Rachel, Lisa, and Daniela. Daniela didn’t show up, which was puzzling, but I couldn’t call her because I had left my phone in the lab, and consequently didn’t know if she was calling me. We ate our cake and Rachel told a very entertaining story about the one time they let a boy in their apartment (her roommates and she are relatively religious): to unclog the toilet so they wouldn’t be late to the ballet. It was an amusing tale, the upshot of which in my mind is the following: late to the ballet + poo in the toilet = legitimate emergency according to Judaism.

When we left the café, we found Daniela had been waiting for us somewhere else. This made me incredibly sad; not only had she been waiting and not met us, but she had missed delicious cake! Only our plans for a Tim Tam party later managed to make me feel even marginally better about this. We set off towards Perlman, where I left the other three to go grab my stuff and say some preliminary goodbyes. I also opened a card signed by everyone in the lab, which was incredibly sweet, and discovered they had gotten me a gift as well: a Weizmann tee shirt and mug. I was delighted as I finally managed to break free and head towards the Garden of Science, where our KKISS goodbye tour and dinner were about to begin.

I caught up with Rachel, Daniela and Lisa taking pictures near Jubilee Square, and was just in time to be a part of an awesome one (which I can’t share because it’s not on my camera, but I am sure Rachel and/or Lisa will put it on facebook). Soon we were at the Garden of Science, which turns out to be a big park with science-like installations that are fun not only for small children but dorky college kids. We split into two groups to take simultaneous tours, and got to play with gravity, sound, water, light, and wind, among other things. I can’t explain much better than that, so hopefully the pictures below will suffice.

After the tour we had a chance to play with the exhibits on our own, then all headed up to the cafeteria where a dinner buffet was laid out for us. After eating the meal and about five different types of desserts Greta kept bringing us, she thanked us all for coming this summer and presented each of us with a backpack with the Weizmann logo and the name of the summer program printed on it. We had a ball taking a “backpack picture,” and practically had to force ourselves to leave after entering the garden more than three hours previously.

Back at Clore, everyone temporarily went their separate ways. I recruited Jonathan, Clay and Zvonimir to help me buy tasty beverages for the evening of fun ahead, and we all kicked in and got a crate containing a mixture of different beers. As we returned and set it on the table outside the music room, we found everyone breaking out either their personal stashes or new purchases for the occasion, and accrued quite a selection within minutes.  Asaf helped us set everything up.  Once we decided it was time for the party to start, we all grabbed drinks and sat down in the lobby to chat.

Since the party wasn’t yet hopping, Rachel and I decided it was prime Tim Tam time. I called Lisa, Daniela and Tamara down to the kitchen to join us. Rachel was heating the chocolate milk in the microwave as I grabbed the cookies from their safe, bug-free spot in the refrigerator. I also grabbed a few tee-shirts for us all to put on so as not to soil ourselves. Dan, Asaf, and Oren all passed through as this was going on, wondering what we were up to, and I demonstrated first, to explain.

I took a Tim Tam and bit off opposite corners. The cookie is chocolate-coated, and filled with a porous, crunchy substance. I dipped one end in the hot chocolate and used the cookie as a straw, and as soon as it filled, shoved the entire thing in my mouth to discover hot, melted chocolaty goodness. My preliminary, mildly successful trial was duplicated and improved upon by all of us girls, and even Oren tried, but only repeated it to see if he could actually see what was happening in side the cookie. By the time the box was gone, we were giggly and filled with chocolate, and I had burned my lip, but it was an amazing experience.

At around this time Nitzan showed up. He didn’t seem to surprised at our experiment, asking how else one was supposed to eat Tim Tams. As the gathering broke up, Nitzan and I went to my room to grab my computer, and then had a great chat where I showed him Penn Band pictures and he called me a dork, and then I showed him climbing pictures, making him insanely jealous, as payback. At some point he decided he was hungry, so I accompanied him to a nearby pizza place for a bit. Our conversation carried us through the meal and back to Clore, where he left me at the door and went home. I re-entered and joined the party in earnest, which wasn’t hard because it had really gotten going by this time. Large groups of people sat and stood all over the lobby and spilled out onto the lawn outside. I was very pleased, but a bit sad because I had to start saying some goodbyes.

After this painful procedure, during which I negated the farewells by setting a date for San Martin at 12:30 tomorrow and making people promise to be there, I headed out to Hertzl Bar where a few people were waiting. First I stopped back at the store to return the crate, then I crossed the street to sit at an outside table and chat with Iris, Clay, Tanmay and Alex. I was far away from everyone because of the table, though, so soon headed upstairs and found Dan H., Ari, Jordan and Zvonimir having a great time. I ordered a milkshake and sunk into the conversation, which wasn’t very linear but covered many topics. Dan’s favorite waitress brought us free shots at one point, with which we all made random toasts, and at another, Jonathan joined the group and we really got going. It was a nice way to spend the last night out.

At the Garden of Science:

Standing on a large spring...

Bubbles in oil

An instrument used by Tibetan monks

Jonathan at the other end of a big "phone"

Bubbles; or, proof of thermodynamics

The breeze makes each pipe sound different

Alissa showing that distance from the center affects rotation speed

Things to note in this picture: Oren, to the left, 

with a gyroscope, and Eszter's facial expression

Ari simulating a moonwalk

Rachel flying!

Lisa doing the same

Zvonimir!

Tamara says hi

Greta got us backpacks!

...so we modeled them

Zvonimir and our party selection

The super-secret Tim Tam eating time:

Tamara and Rachel

Lisa and Daniela...

Oren giving it a go

Simultaneous Tim Tam eating

The Tim Tam Gang...

...plus Oren

Day 51 - ...and very little work was done

Today was an amazing and positive change compared to yesterday's slight lack of excitingness. Coffee at Madaa happened as usual, but when I got to work, I discovered that Sari would be giving her presentation for her PhD defense to our group as practice. We were supposed to ask her challenging questions. So of course I texted Stephen to tell him when and where it was. And he actually came! We had to wait a bit for her to start, because Professor Wagner was tied up, but once he arrived we began. She did a good job, and all of us asked at least one question at the end.

< .science >

Her project involves space-environment simulations for testing of polymer composites, including hypervelocity (up to 3 kilometers per second!) impact. The test apparatus was so cool! She used a high-powered laser to create plasma at the surface of aluminum foil, which generates a "flyer," simulating a micrometeor impacting her samples. Some of her samples were also irradiated before testing (another aspect which simulates space), and Stephen asked what the actual chemical mechanisms are for radiation damage to the samples. Sari answered well and later I found out that Wagner asked Sari to include a slide answering it, because she knew it!

< / science >

Afterward, Sari disappeared to be grilled by Professor Wagner. I did some work before lunch, which was an exciting time. Dan and I decided to try something new, so we walked to the Science Park (a new-ish area with restaurants, clubs, and lots of science start-up companies, just past the train station). Our goal was Mexican food, and we had seen a place when we were out last week. We found it again: it was called "Rapper" and had burritos, which was really all we were asking for.

Dan and I both ordered chicken and pineapple burritos, and some chips to start with. The chips were more like pita, but the guacamole was pretty good, and there was bean dip and salsa as well. The burritos were also not bad, actually. As Dan put it, the ingredients were all good, but the proportions were slightly off (i.e. we could have used more rice and less lettuce), and of course they had no idea how to approach proper wrapping technique. But it was a fun place, and Dan and I had some great bonding time.

After lunch, I had a bit of a chance to work before setting off to the tour of the accelerator. I was a bit late because I had to go back to my building to get my SD card (I had originally left with my camera but no card), but I found the group outside the accelerator. We went inside and saw a scale model/cutaway of the building and learned the basics of what an accelerator does. Then we walked past part of the bottom of the accelerator pipes before going up to the top of the structure. There, besides getting great views of Rehovot and beyond, we discussed the rise of physics, and science and technology in general, in Israel. We also learned a bit about particle physics, and that the accelerator is no longer used for it but instead has been applied to dating of archaeological finds and irradiation of cancerous tumors.

After the tour, I returned to work and was able to get a little bit done, again, before distractions set in. Noa, XiaoMeng, Patro and I explored pictures online, that Noa's boyfriend had taken, mostly, but also some I had taken. Noa joked that her boyfriend collects pictures when they travel, and she collects stories. But it's true; her boyfriend had taken dozens of pictures, but Noa was able to tell us stores about each one, including one that took at least 10 minutes to summarize but clearly was richer than she was able to tell briefly.

Eventually I had to leave work, to grab my stuff and get onto a train to Tel Aviv. I met Tamara and her friends from MIT, including Jesse and Mena but also some new people, at Performance Rock. It was very un-crowded, so we were able to climb whatever, whenever, and gave each other lots of tips. Tamara's boyfriend Colin was among the new people, so I got a chance to meet him. Tamara and I both finished a V3, which was super exciting, but she also finished this red problem I can't quite do yet, and gave me a tip which allowed us both to finish a purple one we had both been able to do all of except the last move.

After we had climbed our fill, done some push-ups and pull-ups and such, we walked back to the bus station. Tamara and I got a sherut back to Rehovot, and I found a bunch of people playing Catan in the piano room upon our return to Clore. I split a beer with Ari and watched Zvonimir lose again to Clay. This was a key result, as it was the first game we had seen Clay play without being the banker. His win gives us a control in the experiment exploring his perfect win-loss record. Once the game was done, though, we all decided we were tired and headed off to bed.

And now, please observe photographic evidence of our accelerator tour!

From the ground (I know, you've never seen this before...)

A cutaway model

The top!
View of Jubilee from above
Sitting to talk about physics!
One floor below the top

Day 37 - A case of the Mondays?

This morning the summer students had a talk/tour of the "submicron" building on campus. We met in the lobby at 9:00 am and a man named Nissim introduced himself, gave a brief description of the phenomenon of interference, and then took us on a tour of the upper floor.

< .science >

This included many clean rooms where various lithographies are performed (optical, photo- and e-beam) as well as his lab, where he tests samples at 10 micro-Kelvin. Brrr.

Afterwards, Maciej and I stuck around to ask some questions, me about why this building falls under the category of physics and not materials science, and Maciej about the quantum Hall effect. Nissim answered, then showed us some more equipment, like the chamber for performing molecular beam epitaxy and a JEOL electron microscope with 40-nm etching resolution, before we said our goodbyes and headed off to work.

< / science >

Pretty much as soon as I sat down and began working on more images, Professor Wagner came in and said the following, which I quote verbatim because it was highly amusing/devastating (depending upon your state of mind...me, I began the day in a good mood):

"We need to meet later, do you have some time, because I don't understand everything you did."

I think he meant that he understood some things but not everything. Or maybe by "think" I mean "hope." Whatever the case, this reconjured my nerves from yesterday, so I told him I was "relatively free," which I meant as a joke because of course all I'd be doing all day was image processing and data manipulation. He smiled and told me "late afternoon." Goody.

So I worked, then went to lunch at San Martin, meeting Ari, Zvonimir, Anya, Onur, Jordan, and later Joel. It was nice to shoot the breeze for a bit, but I was still stressed, so I headed to Stone cafeteria for an ice cream bar, and chatted with Nitzan and a friend of his. I then returned to work and continued processing. Until 7 pm. When I decided to pop my head in and see if this was the time he had in mind to meet. He told me he didn't have time, but that I wasn't doing what he wanted. Huh. So I grabbed my notebook and we discussed it. Turns out it's not so bad; I have the data he wants, but wasn't plotting the right parameters. Anyways that is how I will spend tomorrow morning, certainly.

Shortly after this meeting I left work. When I returned to Clore, I blogged in the kitchen, which bothered Zvonimir until he discovered he was being mentioned. I also chatted with Ben online and with Rachel, and after a bit we decided we wanted pizza. Jordan and Jonathan had just returned from frisbee and decided to come with us. We walked down Hertzl until we came across a kosher place (surprisingly, the first two didn't satisfy this condition), and ordered slices. Soon Dan and Maciej joined us, and we would have pushed the tables together to form one big happy group had they not been bolted to the wall.

On the way back, we stopped in a convenience store to purchase tasty beverages for the evening (Zvonimir had given me some of his money for this express purpose), then set everything down in the piano room in Clore and hung out until people began arriving for the party. Around 11:00, people really began to stick around, and soon after someone broke out a guitar and people stopped playing the piano. I hung around for a good while then headed to bed.

Day 32 - Continued Weirdness

Today was very busy at work.  I woke up super early in the hopes of cashing my first salary check at the bank, but arrived there at 8:20 to discover that it didn't open until 9.  I therefore went to work and started, then went back to the bank.  

< .science >

I started sonicating my samples just after 9:30, then met Talmon at 10:30 for him to show me how to use the glow discharge machine (to make the TEM grids hydrophilic so I could deposit samples sonicated in water, as opposed to ethanol).  This means these nanotubes won't cluster together on a small area of the grid, which will make them easier to examine with the TEM next week.

< / science >

I really didn't have a very exciting day otherwise.  Around lunchtime I heard about the terrorist attack in Jerusalem, which freaked me out much more than it did everyone around me.  I tried to do some work but was really distracted, so around 3 I went to chill with Ran for a few minutes before the math cookie time, then ate yummy pastries with all the math-ers.  After this much-needed break, I looked at more images until around 6, when I had a brief chat with my professor and showed him a new (and very relevant) paper XiaoMeng had found before heading out.

When I got back to Clore I settled in for my nap.  And this is where this entry will conclude, for reasons which will tomorrow become clear.

Another interesting tidbit: welcome to the blogosphere, Joel's mom!  Enjoy a tag!

In the meantime, enjoy some Tel Aviv street art

with interesting alternate spelling

And when my mind wanders...

Something awesome that occupied me for a bit longer than it should have at work this week:


I made this using wordle with the text from a project description my supervisor sent me my first day. I have to thank Mara for the tip, which I found in her blog (about her summer research in Japan). Endless, pretty entertainment, espeicially for those of you at desk jobs this summer...

Day 19 - Soccer Extravaganza

Thursday is like Friday in Israel, because the work week is Sunday to Thursday. I haven't really gotten used to this yet, but it does make the weekend a pleasant surprise.

So Thursday was a relatively chill day. Got into work around 9, but since I had run out of cereal and milk and forgotten to replenish, I decided to stop by a cafeteria on my way in to work to grab a snack. I ended up with a delicious, warmed croissant and "iced coffee." And no, those are not unnecessary quotation marks. It was iced in that it was cold, and it did taste like coffee, but it was more like a frappuchino, and I am of course now officially addicted.

I got in to work, sat down with my delicious treats, and continued re-analyzing the TEM images. This method takes a lot longer, so I was at this pretty much all morning. I then met Tanmay for lunch in Weisgal Square. There was no one else with him, so we waited for 5 minutes to see if anyone else would show. This was lucky, because soon Clay and Lior arrived with food! Lior's mother had cooked him chicken with wild rice, cabbage, and cherry tomatoes. The cabbage was purple and had made the rice purple as well, so the dish was a gorgeous combination of golden brown, purple and bright red. There was enough to feed the four of us but not quite enough utensils or plates, so some of us used pot lids and we ate in shifts on some benches underneath a tree in the square. The cats loitered nearby hoping for scraps but didn't enjoy what we gave them. We had a frightening moment when a dog came by and caused one of the cats to noisily leap into a tree, but other than that it was a peaceful lunch. We then grabbed ice cream bars before heading back to our respective buildings.

When I got back, I did one or two more images before making some coffee and heading down to the second floor, where we were scheduled to have a talk by Shimon Vega, the Weizmann resident NMR expert. This was the first in a series of lectures scheduled for the summer program students, and while Vega was very engaging, the level of the talk was a bit low. He did an hour about NMR in general, then allowed whoever wanted to leave to go before diving into an overview of the theory behind MRIs. I stayed, along with some other random folks and everyone in the neuroscience field.

Afterwards, Jonathan, Tamara and I wandered around Perlman a bit, going to the top floor, then the bottom, where we set the building's Foucault's Pendulum in motion. We were basically wasting time until the Perlman cookie time, 4:00 pm according to my informant. As our wandering got less interesting and we gravitated closer to the second floor lounge, we noticed others doing the same, and eventually entered the lounge around 4 to see the table laid out with yummy goodies. However, the organizer saw us preparing to move in for the kill, and informed us we'd have to wait until 4:30. We therefore sat and waited, and sure enough, the room filled up just after that time. It was a good way to spend the afternoon, and I am no longer as jealous of the math department's daily 3:30 coffee and cookies (which isn't to say I won't continue to crash it occasionally).

I worked until 6-ish, and when I got home discovered that Ari, Dan and Tanmay were ready to go play soccer. I changed quickly and left just behind them. There was no frisbee game running concurrently, and someone had already brought a ball. We set up the goals and began some 3-on-3, but soon we had enough for 5-on-6 and then 6-on-6. I had decided to wear my Puma "retro running-inspired shoes" instead of my real running shoes, which had not only given me a blister but made my ball handling terrible, and I think the improvement was immense. We played until dark again, then Jonathan (a different one) offered us a ride in his friend's car to the front gate. Ari, Tanmay, another girl who had played named Olivia, and I crammed into the back seat of this rather small vehicle. Luckily we dropped Olivia off rather soon, so we could sit more comfortably.

We got out at the front gate, thanked them for the ride, and went to our favorite convenience store for some refreshment. We each purchased a 1.5-liter bottle of Prigat juice (I got strawberry banana, Ari got grape, and Tanmay got mango), then we walked a block down and ordered a large pizza to split. We had to wait a bit once it came out, because it was too hot to eat at first, but once it cooled down we decimated it rather quickly. Then we walked half a block in the direction of campus to the Hertzl bar and sat down to watch the Germany-Portugal game. After about 15 minutes they made us order something to stay, so we each got a beer. For those who didn't watch, it was a fun game, and (/but?) Germany won 3-2.

By the time we got back to the dorms it was not too late, but I'd been tired enough lately that I went to bed immediately.

Since you got a link today and this post is very retroactive, you don't get pictures. But I will catch up, and illustrate my adventures, so don't get too worried.

Day 12 - What IS math research? No, seriously...

I got to sleep until 8 am today! There was nothing to be at work for before 9 am, so I got there at (gasp) 9:05! It was nice. I used my newly acquired key, because for some reason no one was in yet. The entire morning was spent processing images, mainly the ones I took with Talmon (the TEM expert dude) yesterday. I got most of them done (17 done, one AWESOME one left) and went through the other ones, which XiaoMeng took (something like 25 or so), to see if the ones I haven't used left could be used for other categories. If you are wondering what on earth I am talking about when I say I processed images from the TEM, have no fear. At the end of this entry I'll post some TEM pictures and explain it in layman's terms.

So around 1 pm, I went to San Martin, a meat cafeteria on campus, to eat. I was alone, but I ran into Ran (the guy who took us salsa dancing) and a friend of his, so I sat with them. As we were leaving, we ran into Doron and Jonathan, and together they all convinced me to come to the math building at 3:30 for their daily cookie/coffee break.

I worked on the images for another hour-ish, then headed over. Joel was also there, as well as Anna, a Russian girl, and someone else whose name I don't remember, both of whom are also in our program and who I think got here relatively recently. We chatted and munched for about a half hour, then I returned to work.

After a few more images, I started compiling and plotting my data. So far it is telling me close to, but a bit more than, nothing. I hope to meet with my professor next week to discuss it, brief him on my method, and see if he wishes me to continue this way. Towards 5, I got bored and did two chapters in the hebrew book I ordered from Amazon (I am borrowing Stephen's copy until mine gets here, because I wanted to get started). I left at quarter of six.

On the way home I called Nina, who I had met climbing, about a supposed pick-up soccer game. She said there was indeed one scheduled for 6, but that she wouldn't be there; Germany was playing in the UEFA Euro championships at 7. She said that to get there, we just needed to walk along the main road on campus, past the accelerator, and eventually we'd see people.

As I was leaving, I ran into Ari, also hoping to play soccer, and Jordan, who was heading there for the ultimate frisbee game. It was a bit of a hike down the main campus road, but we weren't late. The soccer people were mostly very late, so we all warmed up by playing ultimate frisbee with the frisbee people. Eventually someone arrived with a ball. We retrieved the goals from the bushes, assembled them, recruited one person from the frisbee-ers to make the teams even, then played a bit of 4 v 4 for about an hour and a half. As the frisbee people left, some came to play with us. As night fell and we were finishing up, we were up to 6 v 6. Once it was too dark to play, we put away the goals and began the walk back.

Ari and I, being brilliant, had not brought water. We walked past the dorm and off campus to grab liquids (water for me, this awesome mango stuff for him) from the convenience store across the street, then decided to grab some food. After trekking to a schwarma place only to find that it was closed (by this time it was around 9), we backtracked and got some pizza. They also had gelato, but we went next door, where the gelato looked yummier. Ari got lemon; I tried this caramel stuff and HAD to have it, and got triple chocolate as well. It was ok, but the caramel was to DIE for.

Upon our return, I discovered the night's bruises and showered. Then there was a chilling/computer-using party in the kitchen; Stephen, Jordan, Tamara and I checked e-mail and played each other musical selections. Guess whose music wasn't very popular? Well, me and Jordan, actually (not just me, those of you reading this who think my music is weird - I'm looking at you, Ben). Anyways, we made some weekend plans and then I went to bed.

So below, the first picture is double-walled carbon nanotubes, and the second is a multi-walled nanotube. What I do is measure the wall thicknesses, and also the inner radius of the tubes. I have developed ways of automating the process, because as you can imagine from the second image, as the number of walls increases (some of my images are up to 24 walls), the task becomes overwhelming. Both of these images come from the website of our nanotube supplier, NanoLab.

Day 11 - "Oooo Trendy"

This morning was another early one. When my alarm went off I felt very fuzzy, even after my shower and a bowl of cereal. I got into the lab before 8:30, which was not really necessary as it turns out because I was the first one there and I don't have a key yet. I waited for other people to open doors for me, packed up my freshlly dry TEM samples, and headed over to the microscopy building.

I arrived at 3 minutes past 9 to meet Talmon, the TEM expert who I will be watching as he acquires images from my samples. We worked our way through my 5 samples, three of which I had made yesterday, over the 4-hour period. Sitting in the dark was really not good for my continued sleepiness, but luckily (or by pharmaceutical design) I did not drift off. It was a close thing, though.

At 1 pm we stopped, I thanked him and left. I went back to my dorm to grab a flash drive, stopped for a quick bite, and returned to work. I processed more images from last week until around 2:30, when I returned to Talmon's office to retrieve the files from today. I won't have to do this again once I have a folder on the server, but that won't happen for a day or two.

Once I returned to work, things were tough. It was really warm in our office, and no one else was at their desks. I was having an incredibly hard time staying awake. Since I got in at 8:30 and stayed late yesterday, I felt it wasn't so bad to leave at 4:30. By some miracle I made it back to my room and collapsed, also somehow managing to set an alarm so I wouldn't sleep until night and wake up at 4 am.

After my alarm woke me I made some pasta for dinner. I made a brief stop at the grocery store for yogurt and laundry detergent, just in case I ever locate the person from whom I need to buy laundry tokens, then came back to the dorms. I decided to chill out tonight instead of going salsa dancing; I was still very tired. Stephen, Joel, Ari and I talked and eventually watched a few episodes of The Office ("Product Recall" and "Safety Training," for anyone interested). Then I finished this entry and maybe I'll study some Hebrew before bed.

Oh and before I forget. The best thing anyone has ever said to me about carbon nanotubes, or materials science, or science in general, occurred last Friday as we were eating at the hummus-only establishment in Tel Aviv. We were introducing ourselves still, and talking about what we were working on this summer. I said I was in materials science and working with carbon nanotubes, and Stephen, who is in organic chemistry, goes, "Ooooh. Trendy." I don't know if the hilarity comes across in text, but I seriously love a group where CNTs can be considered "cool."

Enjoy some random pictures from last Friday in Tel Aviv, since today was very photographically uninteresting. The last one is the tallest building in Israel!

Day 10 - My Dream Home

Yesterday was very busy! Got into work around 8:40 because we had a group meeting at 9. Everyone went around the room, briefly stated their project, and talked about recent successes or problems, and their progress in general. It was a great way to review names, because Professor Wagner said each person's before they spoke. Then Patro, who is almost as new as me, gave a brief talk. He got here almost a month ago to work on his post-doc, so he presented for about 20 minutes on his PhD, which he did at IIT (the Indian Institute of Technology) in Bombay.

< .science >

I was actually able to follow along! His PhD explored and compared the stiffness and electrical conductivity of silicate clay nanocomposites, which was really cool because the papers he referenced for his background (these awesome people at Toyota) were the same ones I used to write a paper on this subject for my polymers class last year.

Basically silicates are layered structures with layers which allow proton exchange, which is promising for conductivity applications. He explored different clays and polymers, and the effect of processing temperature on each combination in terms of modulus. He also cleared up for me something I had been wondering for a long while (but which Professor Wagner asked before I got a chance): the definition of intercalated silicate layers. Nanoclay clumps aren't useful; complete exfoliation occurs when clay layers are separated by multiple polymer chains and no longer really retain periodicity. Intercalation, however, happens somewhere in the middle and has always seemed to me like a fuzzy definition. But according to Patro, it is a periodic structure with at least 5 layers where the period is larger than that in the original clay. I learned something! Which was good because by the end of the talk I was in way over my head.

< / science >

So that was the morning, mostly. I also got on the computer and processed all of the single-wall and half of the double-wall nanotube TEM images, then went for a quick lunch with XiaoMeng. We ran into Joel at the cafeteria, but refused to move and made him come to us :)

After lunch, I prepared some more TEM samples, then at 3:30 went to Charlie's (a dairy cafeteria on campus) for a meeting with Greta and the other kids in the program. It was great to meet everyone! I knew about half of the people from chilling in the basement, but some I had seen but not introduced myself to. We are fruit and pastry thingies and chatted until we all realized we should probably go back to work. I returned around 5 and worked for a solid hour and a half before leaving.

When I got back, I burned a CD of music for Nitzan, then went to wait for him to pick us up at 7:20 to go climbing. Us was Nitzan, me, Ran, the Australian dude Dave, and a German girl named Nina (who is new to rock climbing). This week we went to the bouldering place in Tel Aviv.

It. Was. Gorgeous. The holds were wonderful; rough, not sticky, clean. The routes ranged in difficulty from V0 to V6, and the map which showed them gave the rating and color, most of which I could read! There was a cave in the corner. I knocked off all the V0s and a few V1s while giving Nina a few tips. She was really good, and I think she wants to come climbing again.

We climbed until just before 10, when the place closes. I didn't want to leave, which Dave said meant I didn't climb hard enough. I didn't. I could have climbed for another 2 hours. I love this place! Nitzan was like, "I mean, bouldering is fun, but it's not climbing." And I was like, "But it's my favorite! It's like candy!" And he goes, "Exactly. It's like candy. But it's not food." Looks like they're still gonna teach me to lead next time we go back to the other place, which should be a lot of fun.

Got back to Rehovot then grabbed a burger with Dave, because neither of us had eaten in a while. We watched a soccer game which was going on and discussed his love of extreme sports (adventure racing, kayak water polo, etc), then returned to the dorm.

I chilled in the kitchen, blogging and beginning to work on my hebrew! I am borrowing Stephen's copy of a workbook thingie until mine arrives. It should be good.

The bouldering gym is pictured below; the guy in the cave is Ran. I am off to work. Enjoy!

Day 5 - Why I love climbing. And Israel.

This morning I hit the snooze a few times. After a slight panic that the bathroom light was out and I'd have to use a strange shower (which sometimes emits brown water) in the dark, the light flickered back to life and all was well. Yogurt, cereal, then work.

All morning I worked on the computer analysis of the images. I continued work I had done on Tuesday, then once I decided which methods I wanted to compare, started completely from the beginning, while taking notes and printing things for my lab notebook. My lab notebook is seriously going to be the best thing ever. Well ok, there are better things (like ice cream!) but it might be close.

Lunch was in the airport cafeteria again. They had real mini pizzas with sweet potato, so I had to try it. Verdict: yummy! We also had fruitful discussions about Monty Python and the Golden Compass. After XiaoMeng stopped at the bank we returned to the lab. Asof gave me the e-mail of a Nitzim, a friend of his who he knows is part of an informal group of people who climb around here, so I e-mailed him.

I reverted to reading more articles as the afternoon wore on. Highlights: a call from Nitzim, the climbing dude, saying they were going tonight, and a (much too short) call from BEN!!!!! HI BEN! Miss you.

Needless to say the rest of the afternoon was LONG. I left around 6:00, hoping to get some brownie points for coming in early and staying late since I won't be in tomorrow, and apparently many people from my group come in then (in Israel, weekends are Friday-Saturday, and for many, Friday is only half of a weekend-day. I guess my lab friends are part of "many") so I don't want to appear to be a total slacker. But I do work hard while I am there (so far)!

I got back to the dorm and chilled for a bit in the kitchen, as always. When people came in and cooked we had a brief collective facebook stalking session, then I had to get ready to go climbing.

So I was supposed to meet Nitzan at the front gate on the right. I stood there for about 5 minutes, holding climbing shoes and realizing I didn't know what this dude or his car looked like, until someone pulled up and rolled down the window. "Is one of you Nitzan?" I asked as I got in? The driver said yes! The other's name was Yaron. We got down to business: turns out they are both chemists, and Nitzan works on the floor above me. Then I say, "So do you two boulder or top rope?" And Nitzan says, "We lead." Oh goody. They said the gym had all three though, so it would be fine. Then the two of them taught me some important hebrew climbing words:

lamala = up

lamata = down

kach = take (a very important climbing word in leading meaning for the belayer to pick up the slack so you can rest. As Nitzan said, this word is usually pronounced "[frantically] KAAACHHHH")

We next went to pick up their friend Ran. He got at the car and met me, then asked, "How do you know each other?" And all of us simultaneously replied, "We don't."

When we got there, we prepared to pay 40 shekels each, but then I was informed that that night it was only 20 shekels, with a free beer! I love this country.

So we all began by top-roping, because there were no lead ropes available for the guys. After a half hour or so they got one, so we all just took turns, them leading a few and then belaying me on a top-roping route. As we hung out, I learned the colors and some other random words. Somewhere toward the middle of the night we claimed our free beer. We climbed until we were pumped, then went to boulder. There were no routes marked, so basically one person got on, and the other pointed with this long wooden dowel to the next hold to go to. The person climbing had to go to that hold, could use any feet, and preserve the order of their hands. It was great; we climbed until we were really pumped, then left.

On the way back Nitzan and I discovered that we have THE EXACT SAME taste in music. Let me name a few of his favorite bands: Andrew Bird (!!!), Ivy, Rilo Kiley, The Flaming Lips, Sufjan Stevens. I am going to make him a CD! And give it to him next time, because I definitely want to go back.

When I returned to the dorm, a bunch of people were watching The Golden Compass. A bunch of people were giggling at parts so I found myself filling in the omitted information, especially when the DVD skipped 5 minutes ahead. Afterwards we chilled in the kitchen (where else?) for a bit, then went to bed.

Enjoy pictures of the plums from yesterday, then climbing! The first two are the gym, then Ran belaying Nitzan, then Yaron climbing, then the caribeaner they gave us with the ATC (belay device). Note the scotch tape, which they assured us was for "marking purposes."

Day 4 - Chips and...

Today I had to get up sort of early to get in to work by 9 so we could be on the TEM by 9:30. XiaoMeng operated it, and Petro came along again, but the samples were ones XiaoMeng and I made yesterday. OH! I forgot to mention that in my post yesterday about my morning. Oops.

< .science >

So we examined single-walled, double-walled, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes. Turns out the single-walled ones clumped together too much for us to be able to see much of anything, the double-walled ones were really triple-walled or more, and the multi-walled ones were beautiful. XiaoMeng is also really good, so we got some great images for me to process. Yay!

< / science >

I had thought I would be able to take a class to learn to use the TEM, but it turns out it doens't start till too late, so I will be consulting with the TEM expert/person who teaches the class and is the TEM god as he operates it and takes images for me. That was slightly disappointing, but it does cost like millions of dollars so I understand the rules.

After the TEM work we went to lunch, at another cafeteria on campus. They had schnitzel, which was delicious. And there were plum trees outside, from which we plucked (with great effort and lots of help from Asof, our tallest friend) tasty yet cherry-sized plums. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading again; I didn't even finish!

Upon leaving work, I decided to go on a postcard quest, but was unsuccessful and got a number of quizzical looks from shopkeepers. I got home and began cooking. I made chicken with soy sauce and peanut butter (Rebecca, it totally worked and was delicious!) and cooked rice, in a pressure cooker. Has anyone ever used one of those? It was scary, but I made rice successfully for the first time in my life.

Anyways, I ate and drank pomegranate juice and then changed, and we went salsa dancing! Our new friend Ran drove us to the place; Baila Salsa. The first half hour was warm-up, then there was an hour of lessons. I was in the beginner group with the two other summer students who came with us, but Ran was off with the moderate/advanced people. After that it was mostly free dancing but there were a few line dances, which were more fun. I wasn't bad; of the two friends who came as well, one was the same and the other was from Columbia. She was very popular :) After a few hours we finally pulled her away and came back here.

Pictures today: enjoy some views of my dorm! This includes, in order, the lobby, my room (which is one floor below, in the basement), the communal kitchen, and the refrigerator room (a technical term, of course). I have a picture of the aforementioned plums, which you will see tomorrow maybe. Also notice that although my room seems spacious, the photo was taken from the hall, and to enter my room I have to open the door completely or take small steps, as the door path passes very close to my dresser (not pictured).