Sunday, July 30, 2023
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Just one week remains. The second half of this summer certainly flew by much faster than the first half. There's of course a lot of mixed emotions that come with this. I think just about everyone is ready to go home for some reason or another. I certainly am. I miss my family and my dog immensly. I also miss some of the low prices on things back home! I still have a fair bit of work to do on my presenation as well. I'm usually not bothered by public speaking, but I think this might be the first time it really matters. I've stood up in front of people and talked about physics in front of fellow students and a few professors before, but this will be in front of all sorts of individuals far more knowlegeable than myself. Plannig on spending the coming week reviewing as much literature in my subject area as I can. Realistically, 8 minutes of talking and 2 minutes of questions is hardly anything, but it does seem an apt amount for new scientists such as ourselves. I'm also really excited to hear everyone else presentations! I've tried to talk to a lot of other interns about their work, but it's difficult to keep track of what each person is working on at what time.
On friday we all got to take a tour of several facilities at NIST! It was really fun and I defintely felt a sense of pride being able to show the other interns my place of work. Our first stop was a sort of additive manufactoring lab. Their fabrication machines were really incredible and we got to see some of the things they produce. They had all sorts of intricate 3D sculptures displayed, including a few chess pieces! Next up was a forensics lab, and that might have been the highlight of the day. The scientist working there was really excited to share some demos with us. He showed us some setups that could let you visualize the heat that radiates off of our bodies. He also showed us a really cool system that security often uses to detect substances off of almost anything. Next up was the one million pound force press. It is the only one in the world of its kind and it was massive! I was really surprised by the amount of industries that work with these NIST labs. A lot of companies will go to NIST to use their facilities. Even the lithography lab, which was at the end of the tour, lets other scientists come in and use their equipment for a price. Although I wish the tour guides at the lithography lab were a bit more enthusiatic because that's my area of interest. The NIST library was also very cool and housed a lot of old scientific equipment, as well as the world's smallest soccer stadium! This weekend is a busy one for me, and I still need to get some work done on my presentation, so I'm going to cut it here. I'll let you all know how the presenations went in my final blog next week!
Colin Myers