Research et al.

Yes, second one in one week, I'm on a roll here.

To be more descriptive on my summer here at Amherst, here are some (perhaps excruciating) details about what's been on the plate so far:

1) Machine Shop - A three-week long course to teach the basics of using shop tools like mills and lathes. Led by the ever-charming Bob Cann, it involved getting up in the morning - much earlier than I'm used to - and spending three hours listening to lecture and then making various parts. Ultimate purpose: Steam engine. On the final test day, mine spluttered and worked in phases, but hats really went off to dear Saugat Kandel. This wonderful Nepali is usually the butt of all the physics majors' jokes, but he turned out an absolutely perfect engine that ran smooth as butter.

2) Programming the Raeguard - Outside of the Friedman lab is a little device that measures the amount of organic particles in the air of 1st floor Merrill. My first task - that continues to remain a task - was to program code in LabView (more on that later) to accept the output of this device and upload it in convenient format to the internet. Sigh, I wish it was as easy as it sounded. Ultimate objective: Have something that looks like the Lite version of Merrill Energy Tower.

3) Observing the interference of flux-tunneling paths in Cooper pairs - yeah, WTF? This is the main experiment I'm working on this summer, one with some history behind it. 4 years after work on it began, it finally looks like the experiment will actually be performed! Poor Vikyath Rao (Class of 2010) wrote his entire honors thesis on an experiment that never ran. Well, this summer it finally looks like something will come of it. Joy. Unfortunately, in spite of reading that thesis and helping out on certain tasks that need doing, I have yet to understand much of what's going on behind the experimental theory. Ultimate objective: Figure out what the hell it's about - and what those God damn Shapiro Steps are.

In non-internship related doings:

i) Football (a.k.a. soccer) - what with World Cup fever around, it's only natural that the more intrepid of us make efforts to emulate the Football Gods. Often badly, but valiant attempts nonetheless. If only the matches weren't during the day, we could actually get some work done.

ii) Halo - summer = video games. 'Nuff said.

iii) Pulao - the only thing I've successfully cooked so far, but made enough to feed an army (or me for 2 days).

Other things include music, hiking the Notch, watching Toy Story 3 (perhaps the most surprisingly good movie I've seen) and complaining about how hot Hitchcock gets.

Perhaps the greatest aspect of having this experience is that it's becoming incredibly clear that research isn't my cup of tea. While I'm learning things very quickly and acquiring some handy skills, I can't help but feel like sitting in a room with no windows, doing activities that don't often involve people and staring at a book or a screen for hours on end, is something that I really cannot see myself doing much longer than a few weeks. It's not that I didn't expect this to be as previously described, but I guess Amherst's taught me to never take anything for granted. At least I'm more sure of what I would want to do with myself, in that I've scratched out something. But in the meantime, 4 more weeks left...