nanotube synthesis and lunch

Today, I worked in lab with Zhang Guoming to hone my nanotube synthesis skills before tomorrow, which will be the first day I’ll be given the chance to carry out the whole process through (from start to finish); Therefore, the majority of my morning consisted of typing up a protocol from the notes I had taken on nanotube synthesis, which will support me in this pursuit tomorrow. Also today, our whole group went to eat at a Japanese restaurant for our weekly group get-together. Each week different students from our Chemistry group are given the opportunity to bring their grad students along to eat out on Mondays at our usual meeting time of 11:30. This week myself and Allison were given the opportunity to bring our grad students so I chose to bring Zhang Guoming who is the student I predominantly work with as well as another grad student named Pan Zhonghuai; mainly for the reason that Zhonghuai invites me to many of the lab’s social events like soccer on Sundays. However, it was quite an escapade to get to the van that took us to the restaurant, since there was a traffic jam on the side of the road that the Joint Institute lies on. Since I had originally been told to meet the group at the Joint Institute, I had to switch our route on the fly, which meant switching sides of the road once Prof. James Lee called to say they were waiting there for us, where the traffic was less dense. On top of this I was trying to convince both grad students that we had to hurry and that this was not like one of our leisurely walks to the Campus’ dining hall. I think they finally got the message when I started to jog and eventually we got to the van, although we were to last ones to get there.

When we arrived at the Japanese restaurant we were led by the restaurant’s staff to a small private room with sliding bamboo-like doors, which had an outer cobble-stone edging to lay our shoes on. The room made it possible for us all to eat together and share experiences from lab and experiences with eating out at other places in Beijing ironically. The food at this restaurant was different from many of the restaurants we had visited, not just because it was Japanese and many of the other places were Chinese, but that the meat such as the chicken was served without bones. Although this difference may be thought of as minuscule, it is a happy alternative to clearing our meat of bones before taking a bite as we’ve grown accustomed to at many of the Chinese restaurants. From all the dishes that were served I found the steamed cabbage and hotdog dish to be my favorite from the restaurant. Prof. Lee told us that each week we go here there will be a new assortment of dishes served, which will give us all something to look forward to each Monday. However, looking forward to lunch is something I’ve found to be fairly consistent among Peking U’s students, regardless of the day or place since it gives them a break from school, studying and whatever else might be on a restless Peking U student’s mind.

When I arrived back at the lab after lunch, I helped clean the machine that deposits a thin layer of titanium (appox. 6nm) on the quartz that is the photo-catalyst layer instrumental to Zhang’s PhD work. Zhang’s tells me that this machine is probably the oldest piece of equipment still operational in the lab, but as long as it gets the job done he doesn’t mind that it’s slow. I’ve been studying how to use the machine quite closely for fear if I mess with a wrong dial I’ll break it somehow. Therefore, I’ll probably just leave this machine alone for now, since my primary task tomorrow will be to synthesize a nanotube array solely from my notes’ guidance.