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About Me
My name is Zina Sanchez. I just finished my first year at Stony Brook University this past Spring 2006. My major is Biology. Outside of the classroom, I can often be found swimming at my local YMCA or playing hacky sack somewhere on campus. Also, I volunteer in the emergency room at the Stony Brook Hospital during my free time. I enjoy reading novels and although it may sound a little hard to believe, I really love learning about science. It's very difficult and challenging, but I love understanding how things work and why they work and I just love having all the questions I have answered.
I went to a high school called Townsend Harris High School in Queens, New York. As for right now, I have thoroughly enjoyed my experiences at Stony Brook and value the friendships I've made. I wouldn't trade Stony Brook for anything in the world, ever. As for the prospective, I intend to attend medical school after undergraduate school. Later in life, I'd like to someday be a parttime missionary doctor because I love helping people if I am able to do so. It makes me feel wonderful to know that I could make a difference in someone's life or maybe, but that at least I tried. Volunteer work is very fulfilling; which is why I suppose I do it so much.
On a side note: I feel the need to credit Helio's page for ruthlessly stealing his layout - thanks Helio.
 This is a high school picture. I also like eating chicken wings, as you can see from my saucy face.
To find out more about Women in Science and Engineering, Introduction to Research Class, click here: WSE 187
This is my life: My Life
WISE 187 Blog
February 28, 2005
Today in WISE lab we learned about the various types of equipment we will be using to learn about cosmic rays. One piece of equipment in particular was the scintillator. It was used to count the number of cosmic rays that passed through it. In lab we rearranged the two scintillators in various different positions and found a number of different observations; such as that when you lie the scintillators one next to the other the count doesn't go up at all. Inside the scintillator was a photomultiplier tube which was connected to a voltage/battery.
Also we performed an experiment with popcorn to determine the rate of popping, number of popped kernals, number of unpopped kernals, etc. We placed a microphone on a microwave oven which recorded sounds from the oven which would be each kernal popping.
A "challenge" moment I've had since the last class was deteremining how to plot the data (the number of pops) and I suppose a lightbulb moment was deciding to place the number of pops in intervals. I know it's not exactly a "challenge" and "lightbulb" moment, but it's something I thought of.
This is my popping corn lab: Popping Corn Lab
March 7, 2006
Today in Wise lab we discussed different possible experiments we could conduct in order to gain some insight into Cosmic Rays. We came up with several ideas, i.e. calculating the rate of cosmic rays with respect to distance between the two scintillators, finding out from which direction cosmic rays are coming, determining when simultaneous cosmic rays go through the scintillators, and also trying to put different types of materials between the scintilators to see what kind of materials reflect or slow down or do anything to cosmic rays.
A "challenge" moment I've had since last class has been getting together with group members due to scheduling and other factors. A "lightbulk" moment I've had since last class has been going over the equipment in the laboratory and better understanding its uses and interpretation of data, i.e. what the oscilloscope shows us.
March 9, 2006
Today in lab we conducted our first experiment to determine the rate of coincidences with the scinillators set at different lengths apart from each other. We determined first that 4 minutes seemed to provide a good rate of coincidences so we used this number for the rest of our trials. We found that (as predicted) rate increased as distance between the scintillators decreased.
A "challenge" moment we had was, after realizing we had conducted all our trialsto determine the optimal time with the scintillators not perfectly aligned, tring to get the scintillators apart with the same alignment we had started. A "lightbulb" moment was figuring out how to solve this problem by measuring the distances between the two scintillators using a string method where we marked a piece of string where various important points in the scintillator settup were.
March 14, 2006
Today in lab we conducted our second experiment to determine if various materials had effects on the rate of cosmic rays read by the scintillators. We had two setups; one for lighter sheets of materials (aluminum and wood) and another for heavier things (lead bricks and concrete bricks). We ran numerous (not exactly, but mostly 3) trials for each material including a constant with no material between it.
A "challenge" moment I had was when Richard told us we wouldn't have sheets of various materials of equal thickness which would be ideal, but is unrealistic. The "lightbulb" counterpart to the challenge moment was deciding to keep a set distance between the two scintillators for all trials.
Another "challenge" moment was lugging the solid lead bricks off the cart and then back. They're a lot heavier than they seem. However, for this challenge moment there was no lightbulb moment, we just picked them up one by one and created an assemblyline.
March 16, 2006
Today in lab we conducted our third experiment to determine from which direction cosmic rays were coming. The key to this experiment was to angle the scintillators while at the same time keeping a good distance between them so as to reduce the number of coincidences that may come at wide angles. Once we could keep them apart, the angle at which angled coincidences could come at was acute.
Nathan, Richard, Professor Marx, and all the wonderful people helping us with our projects created a contraption which held the scintillators apart and also allowed for anlging. We angled the scintillators and took down the rate of coincidences for five minutes each trial. An "interesting" moment, maybe like a "lightbulb" moment was finding out that the supplemental angles of the first angles from 0 to 90 were equal to their supplemental angles.
A "challenge" moment I had was trying to get the contraption to stay at the intermediate angles, even with the weight sometimes. We overcame that by sticking a lead brick on the opposite angle.
March 17, 2006
Today, lab was pretty laid back. We did an experiment to measure simultaneous coincidences. We had two setups and measured simultaneous coicidences and regular coincidences (only on one setup) against distance between setups. Also, Professor Forman gave us a short lecture about how Cosmic Rays interact with things in the atmospher and create these parabola-type waves which Cosmic Rays come down in.
I can't really think of a challenge moment for this laboratory. I was really cranky for some reason (maybe because of the Chemsitry test earlier that day), so that might've been a challenge moment. A "lightbulb" moment was Professor Forman describing to us why simultaneous coincidences occur and why they're so rare and why ones that are far apart from each other are even rarer.
March 24, 2006
We were asked to write a final entry in our WIKIs. So I suppose this is my final entry, for now at least.
The last day in lab, we were asked the question, "if you could have conducted any more experiments, what type of experiments would you conduct?" Well, I personally read up on Cosmic Rays and learned about a cloud chamber were you could see evidence of cosmic rays. If I had more time, I'd like to construct a cloud chamber.
Another question we were asked was, "if you could take any of the experiments in lab and expand upon them, which would it be and what would you do?" To this I answer, if I could redo any of the experiments in lab and expand upon them, I'd take the direction lab (where we angled the scintillators and calculated rates of coincidences at various angles). I thought the contraption designed was too awesome to not have been used more. I would have liked to have been able to calculate more rates at all the angles to provide a nice even curve for the rates of the angles. There's something about creating a full spectrum of sorts, or just getting complete data that makes me really happy.
If I could improve anything from the laboratory, I suppose it'd be to have gotten a more thorough introduction to cosmic rays which is not to say that the introduction I received wasn't great, it's just that I still felt a tad confused about what exactly a cosmic ray even after the first week. It was only after the second week that I started to better understand.
My experience, was a quite wonderful one. I, not only had loads of fun, but also learned a whole lot and not only about Cosic Rays, but about myself and research. I think this experience really gave me a bit of a better taste of what research might be like. Up to now, I've not really had too much real exposure to research and this laboratory made me feel like I could do a lot more than I thought I could.
I will miss this laboratory, but will have to move onto my Plasmids lab.
Final Experiment Data Analysis Data Analysis for Simultaneous Coincidences
Summer Blog
June 7, 2006
Today is my third day back with Cosmic Rays. I just wanted to keep a log of what's going on in lab.
I'm just going to skip to today and overlook the past two other days, but I shall get back to them.
Well today we met in my old WISE room with Nate and Deb. Michael Marx found us in that room and directed us to another one, a lab room. So, Marx gave us a talk about Cosmic Rays and charged particles and MARIACHI project. After Professor Marx's talk, we worked with Nate.
So, experiment-wise: we had a set-up of five scintillators (two stacked up in now corner and the other three in a rectangular shape) and learned how to use LabMat (is that what it's called?). SO, what bascially is gonna happen is that we're gonna set up various of these setups in various high schools and also we're going to first bring five to BNL. However, before we move them we want to calibrate them and see the difference (assuming there is any) post-transportation by calibrating the scintillators again. We calibrate them in (I believe) various ways, but the one way we chose to do today was to "plateau" the scintillators. So what does plateauing mean exactly? Well, two things that can affect the number of counts the scintillators pick up are threshold and resistance in the circuit. Plateauing involves using only the resistance. So, when you look at the probability of a coincidence (at a given threshold) as a function of resistance, the graph will increase parabolically almost until it reaches a certain resistance and then it will plateau (if set at the correct threshold, it needs to be at a certain threshold otherwise the graph will not plateau, but rather look a lot like a parabola) and we want to see what the range of this plateau is and find the center of it and set the scintilators resistance to that number b/c it will give us some leighweigh in the case that it might slightly move or something like that. Also, another important key is that each scintillator (although they may be very similar) are not identical, this is why we have to plateau each scintillator individually. One of our tasks or goals kind of, will be to create instructions on how to operate the threshold on the scintillators which is controlled with an Iron screw, for a few reasons. One: so that the high school gets hands one experience, Two: so they feel like they own these, Three: so they get aquainted with the equipmeent, and Four: so that in the future if the scintillators need to be calibrated again, they'll at least know how to change the threshold. As for resistance, they won't need to alter the resistance b/c we will already send out the circuits with the appropriete resistors in the circuit already. So, using a setup of three scintillators, Deb and I "plateaued" all five scintillators. We did this, of course, with Nate's help and also, we started with two scintillators of known and constant resistance, but even then, we plateaued them ourselves just to make sure that they were indeed correct. The threshold is controlled and measured using a voltmeter connected to the circuit while we screw in or out the Iron, so it's pretty precise and easy to do.
One wow moment I had today was watching Jack pull apart and put together the older circuit (which Nate explained to us was not as good as the new one b/c there was a whole quarter of the box that was open voltage and considering the fact that it'll be placed in high schools, having open voltage was not a good idea). So, I was so impressed that someone could just pull something apart and change it to their desires. It was awesome watching him work, inspired me.
June 8, 2006
Well, we started off today with a simple introducion to the lab view (gosh I still can't remember what it's called exactly). We learned how to run the scintillators and how to take the information they store and show them graphically. We also reviewed how to program the memory card/chip on the circuit box. We did this whilst waiting for Professor (Dr.?) Schamberger to put together a piece to connect the older circuit box to the voltmeter.
After we got the piece we basically did the same thing we did yesterday, but instead of plateauing (which doesn't ONLY concern the resistance) the resistance, we plateaued the threshold for each scintillator. This was a quite tedious and long process, but we did eventually finish it. HOWEVER, we didn't finish before making errors. Luckily there were only two trials that were not run correctly b/c we completely forgot to switch the resistance in the circuit to correspond to each individual scintillator. Lucky for us though, three of the scintillators had the same resistance so that worked out quite well for us actually. So we re-ran the last two trials and finished up. We played around with lab view a little longer and then we discussed what tomorrow held for us.
Also, during the process of waiting for all the runs on the threshold, we discussed our actual research and Nate talked to us about possibilities we had in working in the lab. The one I was most intrigued with was the possibility of putting together more circuits and scintillators. I found the idea thrilling and I will ask tomorrow about possibly getting some hands on experience in that area. I think I was most intrigued with this b/c of the short demo (not really a demo b/c it wasn't on purpose) Jack gave us in putting together a bunch of wires and stuff into the older circuit.
One question I had while we were running Lab View was the difference in having the rate collected at intervals of 100 secs of (for example) an hour. Nate explain this very well and I just wanted to record that. We use a lower amount of time b/c every second data is being collected and avergaed in over 100 secs and so if one of the scintillators died on us, lots of 0's might start to get averaged in and the rate would drop emormously. However, if we (let's say) set the interval to one hour, if a scintillator did indeed die, then we wouldn't notice b/c all the data points would be avergaed into an hour and this is like an infinate number of data points and therefore one little 0 won't really affect the rate and we won't be able to notice that something might be wrong until we receive many 0's. I'm not sure I'm explaining it very well, but then again I've never really been very good at explaining things. The thing is that with 100 seconds, there is a small amount of data points and so one that's really out there will affect the rate, but in one hour (3,600 seconds) the number of data points is much greater and therefore a number that out there won't really affect the rate for quite a while. So, that was bascially all of today.
June 12, 2006
1 - Friday
Around this point is where I think we began debating the issue of what came first the "chicken or the egg?" - so to speak of course. The actual confusion arises upon trying to determine how to go about beginning the process of plateauing - i.e. where do we begin as far as resistance goes? The question is simple enough, the answer, not so simple.
As I review my notes from Friday I realize that Friday was the first day that we encountered the problem of the possibility of our data from previous tests being inaccurate due to the fact that we're running the resistance of scintillators 1 and 2 at resistances we found to begin with from help. See this is how I see it, we had an initial starting point as far as resistance goes (12 ohms and 15 ohms for the two starting scintillators). From this starting point we got a new set of data. This was among our first times doing these runs and as such (and also b/c we're not very experienced with this) I don't really trust my data. Well, assuming our data is not accurate (or it could be accurate) then any data we got afterwards using this initial incorrect data would also be inaccurate. I was wondering if there was any systematic way of determining from scratch (without the help of a starting point) the best resistors and thresholds for the systems.
So, we varied a few resistors and got quite a few strange results, anomalies really b/c they made no sense. When we changed the resistors in scintillators one and two from 15 and 15 ohms to 10 and 10 ohms, the efficiency of our results dropped drastically from 90% almost to 60%. Also when we changed the resistors to 10 each, the single counts were off the roof, greatly over 20,000 counts per second which Nate explained to us was too high and is not advisable to run at rates of counts this high. After these strange results we ran a few more tests to see if our results were still strange, but things seemed to return to normal.
2 - Monday
Today we continued our work from Friday. ONLY this time, we basically took an approach of starting from scratch, SCRATCH. We took two random scintillators and tried out a general resistor of 10 ohms and varied it and got several plateaus. Nate told us that our goal was to get the lowest possible resistor that gave a nice plateau b/c after a certain point (resistor-wise) the resistance will start to screen out all the particles that hit the scintillators at angles or on corners b/c they won't have enough energy to be detected by the photomultiplier tube.
So, we tested the same set of three scintillators while only varying the resistor on one (and three for the plateau) and then after we varied one a few times, we varied the resistor on scintillator two. We got a few curves, but they looked rather similar and this is when Nate explained to us about the resistors screening out certain particles and as a result of that the efficiency was going up b/c it was only detecting really "good" particles or "ideal" particles that would give you good efficiencies. We did not finish varying scintillator number 2 fully so that will be left for tomorrow.
Also, one last note is that we ran the scintillators for about 15 minutes both Friday and Monday. I will post this data, along with all our other data in one of my next entries.
June 14, 2006
Once again due to my lack of time/laziness (some would call it lack of time) I shall post two days in one.
1 - Tuesday
Yesterday we did a lot of discussion (as usual, somewhat). However, we also helped Jack out. This have been by far one of the best days I've had in a while, not because it's particularly better than the other days, but more because I think Deb and I really needed a little break to breathe from all those numbers that Lab View gives us.
Let's see, yesterday proved to be a difficult day because of the confusion and all the usual really. We ran a few runs to find the plateaus for scintillator three while changing the resistance on number 2 to 3, 5, and 7 ohms.
Today was lots of fun.
2 - Today
I came to a slight realization today and that is that no matter how many different resistances we change on one and two, the plateaus will be generally the same and the midpoint for three will fall genereally in the same place so that could help us determine a constant for three and that'll help us find a better (more accurate) resistance for one and two.
I also came to another realization and that it that my frustration arises from the thought of that what we're doing in lab could just be a big waste of time. The thing is that we really have no way of knowing that what we're doing is really a good use of time. There is no spoon, sort of. There is no right answer! This, in and of itself, drives me crazy and to the point of frustration. I want to solve a puzzle, not keep starting from scratch. I want to start from somewhere that I know (and am certain) is right.
So, we ran more plateaus varying resistors. Nate came to the conclusion that as we lower the resistance, we get more noise and since we get more noise, our efficieny lowers. Actually, he came to one of two conclusions and it had to be one of them by default. One possibility is that we're reading more actual cosmic particles, but this didn't make sense b/c if this was the case then we'd have a higher efficiency, but since we don't it has to be that there is an increase in noise b/c the two-fold rate count is going up, but the three-fold is not. It's a slightly confusing topic and I suppose I'm not making it too much easier to understand, but I'm trying my best.
We discussed the plans for tomorrow. What we came up with was that we'd finish plateauing the scintillators and finally move them to BNL in the afternoon. Also, I spoke with Deb after she got out of lab and she said that Jack had a bunch of work for us tomorrow which I'm really excited about. =)
Alas, we ended (or rather, I did) with helping Jack - highlight of my day mind you.
I don't mean to make my wiki really informal, but I found this online and just thought it was hysterical.
Ten Top Trivia Tips about Zina! - If you drop Zina from more than three metres above ground level, she will always land feet-first.
- Ancient Chinese artists would never paint pictures of Zina.
- Zina cannot be detected by infrared cameras.
- Early thermometers were filled with Zina instead of mercury.
- Twenty-eight percent of Microsoft's employees are Zina.
- Lightning strikes Zina over seven times every hour.
- Worldwide, Zina is the most important natural enemy of night-flying insects.
- Baskin Robbins once made Zina flavoured ice cream.
- Donald Duck's middle name is Zina.
- Zina can pollinate up to six times more efficiently than the honeybee.
June 15, 2006
Let's see, today was not so much a numbers day more than it was a hands-on day. At home I like building things or helping my mother make holes in the wall (not random holes, like holes for paintings or something like that). I also enjoy putting together pieces of furniture and whne (if) something's ever wrong with something I like taking it apart and putting it back together. So basically today we helped Jack put together a bunch (I believe it was something like 10) of circuit bozes.
I really enjoyed this experience because not only was it new to both Deb and I, but it was also a new thing for Nate and I liked the idea of all of us learning together - helping each other out.
What did I learn? The power box thing that we hooked up first was there to change AC voltage to DC voltage. I also learned that the positive terminal on a power supply is often associated with a red cable. I learned about electrical wiring: i.e. the ground cable, the low cable and the high cable and their functions. As an added little twist I also learned that the other male in our lab is Luke, Jack's son. It's always nice to find things out like this.
We also ran our final plateaus of the five scintillators and discussed tomorrow's events. Tomorrow we're moving to BNL.
June 16, 2006
Today was a relatively short day. It was simple, we moved the equipment from SBU to BNL and ran five plateaus, noe for each one of the scintillators and then bascailly went home.
Here are a few pictures of today's events.
 Here's Deb working on the computer. You can see the counters set up in the rear of the picture.  Here's a picture of Nate trying to seperate resistors.  Here's another picture of Deb working on the computer. That big green dot on the screen indicates that the plateau has finished running.  And here's a picture of our setup. Number one is on top, number two is on the bottm, and number three is in the middle. We get the twofold rates (from one and two) and then the threefold rates and we create a ratio. We take this rate at various resistances (on number three) and create a graph from these points and this is what we call plateauing. June 19, 2006
Our results from yesterday of scintillator SN687695 was not completely accurate so we decided to rerun our plateau for this one. Since we're finished running our plateaus we haven't really too much to do as far as data aquisition goes because we don't have the scintillators all setup. This will be done tomorrow.
Since we didn't have too much work to do with the scintillators, we helped Helio and the other students put together the antenna that'll be used with the radio waves part of this experiment. This task proved to be a bit difficult due to the fact that the instructions on how to put the antenna together were missing. However, after much struggle we managed to piece it together. It stands about 20 feet off the ground.
June 20, 2006
Jack came to the lab today and helped set us up for data aquisition. Ecuador played Germany today also - unfortunately they lost 3 to 0. After setting us up, we ran the scintillators and worked on running the programs on the computer now that they were hooked up to the scintillators. Unfortunately though, we didn't get the new circuit box today, so we're just running tests to see if the programs will work with the scintillators - it's more just one program rather than programs - the mariachi data logger. So our final setup (so far) is a square(ish) one. Numbers one and two are setup on the left corner (if entering from the physics building) closest to you. Then numbers 3 - 5 are setup up clockwise on tables doing their best to form a square shape.
Since today we didn't have the circuit box, we helped setup the antenna outside. This task - although seemingly easy was quite difficult because of the weight of the antenna. I admit that I did struggle just a tad with it. So, we set it up right outside the building (on the part where the computer was) and connected it inside.
June 21, 2006
Today we got the new circuit box and we put it together with the scintillators. That is to say - we connected the red and black cables to the voltage box that provides the current. Today we also had to decide on what the set resistance on the scintillators would be. We finally agreed on the following: Scintillator #1 (SN687542) = 15.4 Ω, Scintillator #2 (SN687529) = 20.0 Ω, Scintillator #3 (SN687986) = 15.0 Ω, Scintillator #4 (SN687695) = 20.0 Ω, and Scintillator #5 (SN687586) = 15.0 Ω.
We left this all setup. We also assissted Helio with the application of cinder blocks to the base of the antenna to provide support so the antenna doesn't tip over.
June 22, 2006
Today we were told our objective - or at least some of them. So what we want to do is find data which will help us form a a graph of rate of coincidences (particles in Hz) as a function of distance between the scintillators. I offered the idea that we might be able to simply find this data by simple formulas.
So we were going to start on this experiment, but we were unable to fully carry it out for lack of extension cables to help reach to get the scintillators together so that we may start at (let's say for example) 0 m distance apart. However, even though we couldn't run the experiment on all five scintillators, we decided to run the experiment on just three scintillators to at least get the feel for it. So we ran several of these tests and came to the realization that getting a reliable number of counts would take a very long time. We decide to take data until our three fold count was at about 1000 so that our error would be only about 3%. So we ran five of these tests because they took a rather long time.
June 23, 2006
Today we finished extending all the power (red and black) cables on the scintillators. By the time we finished this though it was rather late (for a Friday that is) so we decided to leave this for Monday so we could start a new experiment fresh from the start at the start of a new week.
Also today Professor Marx gave us another task to complete and that is 1)to formulate a spreadsheet with a cosmic ray shower and 2)once we finished this to create a simple program to carry out this function as well. To be honest, I'm a bit intimidated with this request because I'm not too familiar with excel, let alone programming. Deb and I got started on this today, but only took a small stab at it. We still getting aquainted with the whole concept.
Aside from the task, Professor Marx also gave us a little lecture on the physics involved in a cosmic ray shower. Deb is a physics major and I'm sure she probably understood all of it already, but it was quite enlightening for me.
June 26, 2006
Today we began on the five scintillator setup. We also worked on the excel spreadsheet assignment Professor Marx gave us and we think we have made some progress on it. Due to the immensely large amount of time taking data takes - we were only able to run three different setups. Even then, we had to rush off at 5 pm and we weren't able to collect the data for the third run because it had already been running for an hour and a half, but it still needed to be on for another hour. Nate was kind enough to take this data down for us.
June 27, 2006
Today we ran only one setup before we met with Professor Marx who suggested we simply replace scintillator number four because all along it has been giving us strangely large results. Since we need to get this replaced, we couldn't get too much work done afterward for lack of a new scintillator. Deb and Nate have made arrangements (I did not because I live very far from Stony Brook and they do not) to bring a new scintillator tomorrow.
We spoke with Professor Marx about our spreadsheet. I'm not too sure it's exactly what he wanted, but he did say it was a good start. He explained to us why we were getting those strange negative widths in our spreadsheet and that was because we were going too far with the levels. We need to stop at the "critical energy" which is something we have to look up and find tomorrow so we may continue working on our spreadsheet. Also he said that what we've done is only in one plain and is only two dimensional and that have to incorporate that third dimension.
June 28, 2006
Today we got the new scintillator - number four. We callibrated the scintillator varying both the threshold and resistance. Now that we had an official new scintillator number four (because it was before unreliable) we could start running tests to get an idea of the rate of coincidences and a function of distance between the scintillators. We did this for the remainder of the day.
June 29, 2006
We left the scintillators running overnight and found something strange. We set the five scintillators in a rectangle where (going clockwise starting from the top left corner) number 1 and 2 was at a set distance X from number 3, number 3 was at a set distance X + Y from number 4, number 4 was a set distance X from number 5 and number 5 was at a set distance X + Y from numbers 1 and 2. The anomaly we found was that the threefold coincidences for 1, 2, and 5 was greater than the threefold coincidences for 1, 2, and 3. This was strange because the distance between 1, 2, and 3 was smaller than the distance between 1, 2, and 5.
We pondered this for quite some time before speaking with Professor Marx who suggested we switch numbers 3 and 5 (in position, but run them as 5 and 3 respectively) so that we may prove (or disprove) that what we're seeing is indeed real.
June 30, 2006
July 5, 2006
Simply put, today was a continuation of the previous Friday's work which was simply running the scintillators and collecting data. In between runs of course (since they're very long) we worked on excel in expressing our data graphically.
July 6, 2006
Today I met Jeff and Joe and Ritch (who I already knew) and chatted with them for a bit. I was surprised in the morning to find my car gone from my driveway so I lazed around home for a bit until Deb picked me up and drove me to Brookhaven. I got there about noon which is when I met Joe and Jeff. Helio gave Deb and I the task of pulling apart Cosmic Chris. We were to disasemble him and label all his parts - basically take him apart without losing his pieces and stuff.
After we took Cosmic Chris apart, we helped Joe remove the tape from the scintillators and remove the photomultiplier tubes from the scintillators as well. Then we helped Joe glue the photomultiplier tubes to the scintillators. These were to dry overnight.
July 7, 2006
Today I worked with Joe for the morning half of the day. We worked on taking off all the plastic from the scintillators and rewrapping them. We spent a good amount of time trying to track down the supplies to wrap the scintillators. In particular there was the electrical tape which we had to hunt for somewhere outside the physics building. This little journey of ours took some 20 minutes and gave me a chance to get to know Joe better, it was nice.
After wrapping the first scintillator with Joe, I was left with the task of wrapping the second one which I really enjoyed because it gave me a chance to work at my own pace and complete tasks in the compulsive and neurotic ways I usually like to complete things. I'm somewhat of a perfectionist. So after wrapping the two scintillators, we tried to get a pulse from the scintillators so as to see if there were any light leaks.
July 10, 2006
Today we continued working on putting Cosmic Chris back together. We cut foam for a good deal of the day. Our task was to have the scintillators fit snuggly in the foam - our task was basically to fingerprint the scintillators in the foam. We also spent some of the day discussing the possibilities in perhaps creating a circuit for a battery charger or perhaps simply buying a charger.
July 11, 2006
Our (Deb and I's) morning was spent cutting foam again, but this task was a tad easier 1)because we already knew how to do it and 2)because it wasn't too much cutting that actually needed to be done.
After cutting foam we proceeded to hook up all the cables that make up Cosmic Chris. We got a power supply and came across a few problems. We need to callibrate the scintillators to find an optimum voltage supply, but the problem with this is that since the scintillators have two seperate photomultiplier tubes and each photomultiplier tube has a signature plateau curve and optimum voltage value we won't be able to satisfy the optimum voltage for both scintillators because we only have one power supply.
So the final decision was to plateau the scintillators together or was it perhaps turning one off? I'm not exactly sure. It was at this point or rather around this time that Deb and I were found with not much to do, but watch others work or crowd others working so we decided to go for a walk and get better acquainted with the physics building. It was at this time that we met a Carlos Gamboa. As we walked through the halls of the physics building a name on one of the office doors caught my eye, "Carlos." The night before a lady had asked me if I knew a Carlos Bermejo who was working at Brookhaven and of course I didn't so that's why I was intrigued by the name. I stared at it for a bit trying to remember the last name of the person the lady had mentioned. Then out walks Carlos asking if I needed help and I responded I was looking at his name at which he replied, "oh well then you found me." Carlos Gamboa is a PhD student at Stony Brook University and is studying engineering and is working with MARIACHI in the networking system (?). It was nice to meet him, nice fellow.
When we returned from our little excursion we found absolutely no one around, but slowly little by little people returned. We hadn't much to do and Deb had to go so we decided to leave. I decided to just quickly check to see if I had any luck finding Ritch, but instead took part in a little chat with Helio, Jeff, and Nate. Then there was Ritch and there wasn't much else to do - for today that is.
July 12, 2006
Today I had my first cloud chamber experience. I must admit, it wasn't all that exciting. I suppose that might be because the whole thing was kind of hyped up - I thought it'd be more amazing. I had trouble at first seeing the "rain." Once I actually did see the "rain," I had trouble seeing the cosmic ray trails. Had I never heard of cloud chambers, this experience would've been awesome - well nevertheless, it was pretty cool.
This experience was however a nice one because all this time we've been working on these different projects trying to detect these things we really don't even know exist. Seeing the actual trails did convince me a bit more that I'm not insane and that I'm actually contributing to something real. For the past few weeks, I've been asked several times if I thought that what I saw was real and to be hoenst even though I can provide an answer, I'm not sure I'm fully convinced of it. This gave me an opportunity to experience a little dose of reality and managed to convince me that even though sometimes I feel like all is lost and so am I, it really isn't. It's really there.
July 13, 2006
Today the whole gang got together and we had a meeting to help keep each other up to date on each others' research. We spent the first half of the day at the meeting and then I spent the latter half of the day working with Helio and Jeff on running a cloud chamber to see temperature as a function of time (?). I'm not exactly sure - I space out a lot. I helped with the setup and I must say I was much more impressed with today's cloud chamber than I was with yesterday's cloud chamber.
The visibility was much better (is visibility a word?). The particle trails were much clearer and in general the entire thing was much clearer. After running the cloud chamber for what I believe was about an hour (with failed attempts at getting the cloud to reach 4 inches - it got up to 3) we cleaned up and ran a little experiment for fun with the dry ice and bubbles. After seperating the dry ice and alcohol into the cooler and alcohol bottle, respectively, Jeff blew bubbles over the cooler and it was a rather mind-blowing experience for me to see the bubbles just stay afloat in mid air motionless - it was quite exciting.
 Bubble and Dry Ice "Experiment".  Bubble and Dry Ice "Experiment".  Bubble and Dry Ice "Experiment". These picture's don't do the experiment justice - in a picture the bubbles will appear motionless regardless of whether they are or not because in a picture thing's don't move, but you've got to trust me on this, it was pretty awesome.
July 17, 2006
Today we received a little tour of the lightsource - just lightsource. From the tour, the most satisfying moment was when I recognized the proteins on the wall. It made me feel like perhaps not all of education was a waste. In all seriousness though, I do know that my education hasn't been a waste.
Here are some pictures of the interior of the lightsource. I'm not exactly sure what I took pictures of, but the scenes were intriguing and I felt the need to snap away.
Helio and I discussed working on "R." It's a statistical program, much more than that I cannot say because I know not much about it.
I'm excited.
July 18, 2006
Today I started working with "R." I can run simple functions like simple graphs and such.
Lunchtime.
I have to say that the highlight of my day was watching a potato peeling video. It was both intriguing and captivating. Tomorrow we have planned a little "experiment" on peeling potatoes.
July 19, 2006
"R" continued - new functions learned today.
I'm also continuing the taking of data with the scintillators. Page 22 of the data link below is actually missing two new points.
Helio and I ran a potato "experiment." The results were unfortunately, not as we had wished. The skins did not come off as we had wished. In conclusion, we believe the water was not cold enough.
July 20, 2006
Today was quite a day. I found I could make a pie chart. After staring at a pie chart for some time and feeling a bit confused I decided to play around with it and what I ended up figuring out how to add a title to my charts and how to alter the colors on the graphs which was very amusing for me. Knowing that I could enter "hotpink" into the program and it retunring that color was very amusing to me.
We also had a short meeting this morning. People's current events were discussed. I did not participate - not because I didn't want to, but more because I was too shy to. I really have to grow out of being shy.
On a sadder note, I left my headlights on and came back to a car without battery power. I received a boost from a man named Sean who is familiar with "R" quite in depth and works for the Biology department. I must admit I was intrigued about discussing a Biologist's research.
July 24, 2006 and July 25, 2006
These past two days have been pretty laidback. Yesterday I, honestly, didn't get too much done, but I did receive a forwarded e-mail from Helio (originally from Sean) about suggestions as far as graphically expressing data on R. It did give me a few ideas which I further explored today. Although I spent most of today just highlighting and writing notes about the "Introduction to R" manual.
Undersectretary of safety for the Department of Energy paid us a visit today. It was quite the event. The whole event has been hyped up since last week and when it came right down to it, it literally took about 10 minutes(tops) and we just kind of stood around not saying too much. ALSO, our session with Helio today was cut short because of this big event. Dan, Deb, and I were talking during the visit and we discussed the possibility of finding an acronym for Alicia's antenna that would spell out the letters H-E-L-I-O - perhaps something like High Energy Low Ionization Observer. We, of course, just took scientific sounding words and put them together, I'm not sure that bunch of words makes very much sense. Originally, I asked if the antenna had to have an acronym forming name and Ritch skeptically said "no" so I suggested we name the antenna Greg - just Greg - because it sounded nice, to which he responded "it should be a little more sophisticated." So I suggest Charles Wellington.
We had a video conference yesterday with Helio from Hawaii. It was quite the event - everyone was there. I, of course, being camera shy hadn't much to say, but it was nice saying hello to Helio from NY - what with him being in Hawaii. Today we had a much shorter video conference with him again (as I mentioned before it was cut short because of the visit).
Data
This is data we've collected over the past few weeks: Data.
This was our somewhat failed attempt at creating a cosmic ray shower simulation, still needs to be worked upon, but for now this is what we have.
Here is some more data.
All data needs to be improved upon, but for now this is just a little something we've compiled. |
