Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good)

I spent this morning reading.

For lunch and lecture, we had guest speaker Professor Carmen Gomes come in. She gave a really cool presentation about nanotechnology for pathogen monitoring through biomimicry! That might not make sense, so what it means is really really small technology with inspiration from nature to determine whether or not a certain pathogen (for example, bacteria or a virus) is present. I looked up the size of a nanometer, and it’s smaller than the micrometers I’m using with the 3D scanning team. 1000 nanometer = 1 micrometer. [1]
One of the research projects she shared with us has inspiration from the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. It’s super adorable. The reason the squid is inspiring is due to it’s symbiotic relationship with a bacteria called Vibrio fishcheri which enables it to glow in the dark! [2] Since the squid wants to let a very specific bacteria in, how does it distinguish good versus bad bacteria? Professor Gomes is trying to mimic the way the squid selects only the Vibrio fishcheri so nanotechnology can specifically select a specific pathogen. It’s really cool research!

This afternoon, I did some more reading and started working on my presentation for next week. I was supposed to present on July 5th, but since we’re being given the day off, I get the choice to present on Wednesday (July 3rd) or Monday (July 8th). I’d like to have the four day weekend to relax, so I’m planning to present on the 3rd.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• Last night, I took some time off. I watched some TV and did my laundry. That’s it. That’s all I did, and it was so nice.

[1] Micrometer to Nanometer Conversion: https://www.unitconverters.net/length/micrometer-to-nanometer.htm
[2] Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Symbiosis with Vibrio fishcheri: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/glowingsquid.jsp

Sincerely,
Lara