The First Two Days

So, I have officially completed my first two days at work. In a lab. An actual science lab. A science lab where they will (eventually) let me do sciency things.

Pardon me one moment.

WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO!!! (major major science geek moment...)

Thank you.

So, I should point out at this point that I have done nothing really cool or probably even that interesting. I spent all of yesterday doing orientation. The first two hours I spent in a big meeting room with all the other interns learning about the mission of the lab, the importance of not giving your password to anyone, and discovering that there was absolutely no one that had even heard of Covenant College (at least judging from the strange looks I got when people asked where I went to school). I also found out that (as far as I know) I'm one of the very few interns doing anything with biology that is here now. More people show up later, so we'll see then.
After that meeting was over, I met my advisor Aaron, who is very nice. He showed me around the different labs where I'll be working, and made sure to point out the mass spec and the NMR that we have access to. (insert another geeky science moment here....really big pretty shiny machines...that I don't have to operate! They have people for that!) He also showed me the lab I'll be working in mostly, which is in an older area of the campus. We only have access to one fume hood, but that's not anything new. :)
Aaron also has a master's student working for him. I'll be working with Lacie more closely than him probably. We all went to lunch together, which was fun. After lunch, I had a ton of online training to complete, which I got mostly done.
Today was mostly the same. I met with Aaron and Lacie to talk about the research that's going on right now and what I'll hopefully be doing, and after that waaaaay more training went on. Cybersecurity training, lab training (always wear eye protection in a lab was a heavily emphasized point), and other training...bleh. I also read about 50 (or, more accurately, 5) papers involving both the background of the research and the synthesis I'll be doing.
And what will I be researching? Why, I'll be examining the world of proteomics, specifically synthesizing a tag that will covalently attach to a specific enzyme or class of enzymes and allow me to run them on the mass spec to examine their structure and sequence, and possibly deduce some sort of function they might have in the cell.
Too nerdy? Here's the short version: I'll be looking at proteins and making tags for them so I can learn about their structure and function in the cell. Oh, and later this summer I might get to mess with cells using these tags I've made. Two words: Heck yes. :)
I think that's about it for now. I don't know how many specifics I can actually post on what I'm doing (cybersecurity and information protection and all that), but you can always contact me and ask! Sorry this is so long...hopefully future updates will be shorter.