On Sabbatical – #11

Wow, it’s hard to believe, but I’ve reached the half-way point of this sabbatical.  What does that mean?  Well, for this post, it means a little looking back, and a little looking forward.

Winning Name?

The votes are in.  Brianfredo Dalefino Gilbertega is the winner.  Frankly, I’m just glad some people actually voted.

Poll – Nobel Worthy Name?

The other night my wife told me I’d never win a chemistry Nobel prize until my name was more interesting.  If that’s all it takes, I’m willing to take the plunge!  Several folks suggested some names – here they are.  Let me know by your vote which is the best.  Or make a different suggestion.

Holy Batballs Batman!

Surprisingly, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) isn’t as exciting as it might sound.  I know, I was shocked too.  A lot goes into SEM.  First, you have to coat your samples.  I’ve been coating mine with gold and palladium (not enough to get rich on though).  Then, you have to sit around while the vacuum chamber that your samples will be placed in vents (generally three whole minutes!), put the samples in, and pump it back down (another three minutes!).  After that you have to turn on the electron gun (cool) and align everything.  Just getting ready takes about twenty frickin minutes!

After all of that, you take pictures of your samples.  Here’s one I got yesterday of a silica nanosphere (ok, nanoball) array:

On Sabbatical #10

Life, especially Katie’s, has gotten much better since the last update.  Katie was having a real hard time for a while – new town, new school, new friends.  The folks at her school wanted to move her into a new class, which she didn’t want to do, even though the kids in the class were really rowdy and disrespectful, because she had made several friends.  Dayna and I spent the better part of a day at her school talking with the counselor and then observing the new class.  Many things about it were better:  smaller (13 students instead of > 20), quieter, and more advanced math.  By the end of the day, Katie wanted us to leave and was fine.  Since then, she’s gotten to know the kids in that class better, and has joined a Girl Scout troop that includes some of the girls in her class.  She’s even told us that she actually likes Tucson!

My research is moving along.  I’ve gotten to be pretty decent at making silica nanoballs.  Now I’m trying to make 3 dimensional arrays of them with some gold nanoparticles included.  This takes time – 2-3 days for array formation, so I have a lot of time on my hands to work on other things.  A couple of weeks ago, I spent most of my time preparing for group meeting (my first since I was a postdoc about 14 years ago!).  The group meeting went well.  I talked about research at Linfied (DMAC for those of you who’ve been following this blog), and what teaching/researching at a school like Linfield.  It was well-received, with some good discussion – both about my research (Jeanne had some excellent suggestions of things to look for at some point) and questions from students about teaching positions.

Dayna’s enjoying catching up with friends.  It’s amazing how many of her’s still live in the area.  Today she got to have brunch at La Paloma with a Tucson friend from grade school.  Katie and I weren’t invited, but we had fun anyway.  Let’s see, what else?  We’ve been going to UA volleyball games – this will be a big week since both of the Oregon schools are coming.  It’s definitely fall weather here (sunny, mid 80’s), and Tahoe still loves going to the dog park (although he tears his paws up chasing balls).