Science in Informal Language by Students at Bowdoin College - Brunswick, Maine
“Cooking” in the lab
For one gloriously, beautiful Maine summer—the summer after my sophomore year—I worked in an organic chemistry lab at Bowdoin College under Professor Rick Broene’s guidance. Now, it’s my senior year and I have chosen to continue the same project for an honors project. I spend all of my time in lab trying to synthesize a ligand—I’m essentially cooking with chemicals. [Read more…] about “Cooking” in the lab
Solving the Chemical-Dirt Dilemma
This past summer, I worked in Bowdoin College Professor Dharni Vasudevan’s lab (funded by an NSF grant), researching soils interactions with chemicals. One of my favorite things about the research is its applicability and importance. While our research isn’t the easiest to explain to a non-scientist audience, I find the practicality of the research to be very easy to explain, which I believe is a testament to its importance. [Read more…] about Solving the Chemical-Dirt Dilemma
Pharmaceuticals on the Soil, Oh My!
I spend my time in lab mixing up different pharmaceuticals in water, shaking up that pharmaceutical/water solution with soil and then using a complicated instrument called the HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography instrument) to see how much of each pharmaceutical stays in the water and how much latches onto the soil (through a process called sorption). Our lab focuses on the movement of pharmaceuticals in the environment because, frankly, there are lots of pharmaceuticals floating around out there. Studies show that a large number of pharmaceuticals have been detected at measurable (μg/L and ng/L) concentrations in ground water and drinking water worldwide.1-9 [Read more…] about Pharmaceuticals on the Soil, Oh My!
The Unexplored Role of Water in Biochemical Reactions
Proteins and Active Sites – A General Overview
Each of our trillions of cells are intricately designed machines which are uniquely suited to carrying out a highly specific set of tasks. The most important components of these machines are proteins, often referred to as the workhorses of biochemistry. The goal of my work is to explore the unique role that water molecules can take in the functions of these amazing biomolecules. Every protein is essentially a long chain of amino acids, anywhere from ten to ten thousand links in length, where each link interacts with every other to fold the protein into a specific shape, which gives it its unique function. Many proteins function as “enzymes”, which means that their job is to speed up (catalyze) certain biologically important reactions, such as the breakdown of other proteins. Reactions such as this could take thousands of years to happen under normal conditions, but in the presence of the proper enzymes, they can proceed to completion in less than a second.
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LeadIn(g) the Way
Introduction and relevance: In the fall of 2015, I collaborated with Danielle (the founder of this website) on a Chemical Analysis project examining lead—hence the pun in the title—in soil from community gardens. We examined soil samples from the Bowdoin Organic Garden (BOG) in Brunswick, ME and from the Clinton Community Garden (CCG) in NYC, NY. These gardens weren’t randomly chosen; the BOG is accessible and very prevalent in Bowdoin students’ lives, and the CCG is Danielle’s hometown garden with a history of high lead concentration. Lead, a heavy metal, is a common environmental contaminant that can cause damaging health effects. It’s a possible carcinogen and especially a concern for children, as studies have linked lead exposure to cognitive and behavioral complications1. Much of the produce from these gardens end up on dinner plates, so the results of this research are important. It’s hard to predict how much lead will end up in the plants grown in lead-contaminated soil, but there is a correlation between high lead concentration in soil and more lead detected on crops 2.