Sunday, July 24, 2022
By:
Hi there!
Sunday morning I took myself out to a nice brunch at Mission Dupont. It is a mexican restaurant with a limited brunch menu, but everything that they did have looked great! I ended up ordering a chorizo and egg quesadilla with a tangy chipotle sauce on the side. It was so amazing and the sauce was perfect, even my airpods liked it (if you know, you know).
After grabbing brunch, I explored the farmers market for a bit. One of the stands has cheese and crackers samples and they highly encourage everyone to take the samples. I’ve bought their garlic and chive cheese which was only seasonal. The new seasonal cheese is a ‘Baba Ghanoush’ that is eggplant and garlic in olive oil tossed with lemon juice and parsley. It was very tasty. The rest of the day consisted of a much needed nap and enjoying a show over ‘Vemos’.
Monday morning I woke up early to go into the office. I got a few things done before Brad and I left to join Earl Blodgett and Toni Sauncy for lunch in Chinatown. We went to ‘Yardhouse’ which had the perfect atmosphere and great company. I was able to explain my SOCK to Toni, who used to have a big part in the creation of the kit. She loved my ideas and even said she would like to order one. I’m really grateful that Brad invites me to lunch with his colleagues. It gives me a chance to meet more people who have been down the path of choosing what they want to do with their future, and it’s so nice to hear all of their experiences. I ordered a beautiful sandwich that was perfect in all ways. Brad ordered a couple tacos that also looked so great.
Coming back to Foggy Bottom, I went to the market to grab a couple chicken breasts for a taco night that Emma and I planned in consignment with the interns. It was a lot of fun and consisted of lots of dancing!
During work on Tuesday, I uploaded a new demo to TikTok titled ‘Fireworks in a Glass’. This demonstrates Properties of Matter, specifically density. The simplicity of this demo makes this more of an attractive activity for students and teachers, and it is an easy visual for how density works. The main takeaway is that water and oil don’t mix–which many people know. But why? Turns out, water is a lot denser than oil, so when they attempt to mix the oil sits on top of the water. Water is made of polar molecules, meaning the molecules have one positive end and one negative end. These molecules can only attach themselves to ‘like’ molecules (those that are the same). Oil is made up of nonpolar molecules which means its charge is evenly distributed. Here is a small breakdown that made it easy for me to understand.
Polar + Polar = YAY
Nonpolar + Polar = Absolutely not
Nonpolar + Nonpolar = Sunshine and Rainbows
So in the demonstration, I show that water-based food coloring does not mix with oil, no matter how much it is broken down. But when I pour this ‘mixture’ into water, the oil floats up along with the small food coloring bubbles and because the food coloring is more dense than the oil, it sinks to the bottom of the oil and mixes with the water.
I also made a youtube video demonstrating this, which will be live in September!
Tuesday night a couple of the interns walked over to Franklin Park to enjoy a movie on the lawn sponsored by Whole Foods. The movie was Black Widow, and Taylor O. had never seen it. We all got free goodie bags with sparkling waters, cookies, and popcorn. What we didn’t realize was that the whole movie was being scored by the company that put the event together. So basically, they were playing their own music over the actual music/dialogue. We left, mainly because we didn’t want this to be Taylor’s experience seeing it for the first time.
On Wednesday, I worked on a new Physics Jeopardy for the SPS National website where it focuses on Astronomy Questions since my SOCK theme is eclipses. Astronomy and Physics relate very closely, so it wasn't easy to differentiate questions, but I am more than happy with how it turned out.
I found out that they added more episodes to ‘The Good Doctor’ on Hulu and immediately started watching some while eating some alfredo pasta.
Thursday morning all of the interns left GW at 8am to go to a tour of NIST that was put together by Taylor C., Valeria, and Div. NIST is the National Institute of Standards and Technology. They have various departments and research projects happening, and it was nice to be able to experience these in person. We went into an Anechoic Chamber, which is a room that is designed to stop sound waves from bouncing off of each other. I was nervous at first because some of the interns said they got dizzy and I get motion sickness very easily. Before we went in, we discussed what it may sound like and what we might be able to hear. It basically sounds like you have noise canceling headphones in, or maybe like someone is trying to talk to you underwater. Our group was silent for a minute or 2 in the chamber, and most of us were able to hear the blood flowing through our body. I was lucky enough to also be able to hear my heartbeat, which basically sounded like a machine whirring. Afterward we all went to grab lunch that SPS provided. We were all able to pick our own meals from Panera which was very nice! We then split into two groups and visited two different research groups that were very interesting. Honestly, it did solidify the fact that I would like to stick to theoretical physics and possibly work with an experimental group as a theorist. I do enjoy experiments, mainly optics, but would really enjoy working on the theory of various projects. The last stop on the tour was the Neutron Center, where we were guided around a large and very secure warehouse.
On Friday, I went in to work at ACP and the packing of the SOCKs began. I folded 80 boxes and packed 80 tiny bags worth of brass brads (which are needed for a demo). I also stuffed the boxes with blue shredded paper to make them a little fancy. Brad helped me out by printing out the presentation guides, mainly because my computer never wants to print anything. There were about 360 papers printed, and that's not the last of it.
After lunch, Brad and I performed the Smoke Cannon Demo, and it was so cool! I had never seen this done and it seemed like a very simple set up and procedure. We then headed down to Foggy Bottom - GWU together because Brad was giving the Interns a Future Careers talk. This talk was clarifying for a lot of us, and helped us in the tough decision on what to do after graduating from undergraduate. A huge thank you to Brad for all of the great advice. We all met Dr. Alexander van der Horst who is the Department Chair of Physics at George Washington University. I was able to talk to him about graduate school programs where he gave me advice on attending internationally -- specifically Europe. He has a great amount of experience, and it was nice to hear all of the advice from someone who has experience in fields I would like to go in. We also got to see George Gamow’s (a very important person regarding the Big Bang Theory) desk.
10 of the interns all rallied at 8am to drive to Sandy Point State Park Beach to enjoy the water and some sandwiches. Everyone brought food to share, and we packed it in an ice chest (or cooler..) to bring with us. It was such a hot day, and it had been for many consecutive days. We all got in the water quickly, but also got out even quicker. Unfortunately, Lucy got stung by a jellyfish and as soon as I heard that, I was out of there. We later found out 3 other interns got stung as well, so we all pretty much stayed out of the water as more of the jellies were coming out as the day went by. We played uno, ate lunch, and listened to music before deciding it was getting incredibly hot and leaving. After many naps and a lot of relaxing, some interns went out for a night on the town!
Until next week!
Janessa Slone