Stephanie and Science sittin' in a tree...
I've been wanting for awhile to post about my job, because it has been so satisfying as of late. Recently I was given a promotion of sorts. While there's no change in title, there was a $1.05 raise (my biggest ever!) and a bunch a cool new duties. So, now I get to assist in research. This means mostly extracting DNA (our model in this case is a salamander, or rather the tip of its tail that someone else had to harvest), then I isolate a piece of the DNA via polymerase chain reaction and the product gets ran out on a gel. I take a picture of the gel, and then show it to my boss who is either excited (usually the case) or disappointed. Today at work was bad ass, cuz I showed my boss a picture that was very interesting. There's three different species we're working with. It's our belief that one of the species was created due to its biogeographical isolation. Well, we ran its DNA out on a gel, and it was very similar to the other two species (as we would expect) but there's other bits that aren't in the other two. These would be "deletion products", and they're what we're interested in studying. If we sequence these and find that's what they are then CHA-CHING!
Most importantly, today my boss suggested that I think about applying for a HHMI grant. This means I could spend 11 weeks this summer doing research on these critters and earn $3800. While this isn't much (especially after Uncle Sam gets his chunk), it would look amazing on resumes and applications. It would also give me something to do this summer.
Next step is to discuss the idea more. I'd have to give a fifteen minute presentation and write a report on my research. I relish neither idea, but think I could it if I sucked it up. I'd also have to work forty hours a week, which is something I'm not use to doing. Again, a minor inconvenience. There's also the possibility that I'll be denied, cuz apparently they look at GPA and mine is a whopping 2.99 right now. I think I'll talk to one of my co-workers who recently gave her HHMI presentation and see what her take on the experience was...
Most importantly, today my boss suggested that I think about applying for a HHMI grant. This means I could spend 11 weeks this summer doing research on these critters and earn $3800. While this isn't much (especially after Uncle Sam gets his chunk), it would look amazing on resumes and applications. It would also give me something to do this summer.
Next step is to discuss the idea more. I'd have to give a fifteen minute presentation and write a report on my research. I relish neither idea, but think I could it if I sucked it up. I'd also have to work forty hours a week, which is something I'm not use to doing. Again, a minor inconvenience. There's also the possibility that I'll be denied, cuz apparently they look at GPA and mine is a whopping 2.99 right now. I think I'll talk to one of my co-workers who recently gave her HHMI presentation and see what her take on the experience was...