On Monday, Emily and I started our project. We are experimenting with slime mold. The guide that came with the slime mold kit was really unclear, because it was formatted for more than one experiment. So we followed the directions for growing the spores, and then made up our own experiment. Dr. Yampolsky bought some cAMP for us to use. So, our experiment is to vary the concentration of cAMP in each dish, and observe the result. We spent most of the day doing our project, and then we went to the CPA. Then bed.

Thursday morning Dr. Yampolsky came to lecture on population stability. He derived a formula that explained why populations have a carrying capacity. Lunch. Then straight to Brown to finish Wednesday's lab. We looked at the dilution series and applied some famous person's rule of distribution to our results. Then we looked at our petri dishes we contaminated with our fingers. We learned that not all ger-x kills bacteria. My sample was gross looking. Then Emily and I went to Dr. yampolsky's lab to spread E. Coli on the petri dishes we had prepared. Then we put the slime mould on them so it will grow over the weekend and be ready for us to examine on Monday. soccer. shower. Went to eat at Cheddars. Emily and I went to the CPA for a few minutes, then bed.

Wednesday morning, Dr. Knisley continued his lecture on intellegent vs. unintelligent using computer programs as demonstrations. He gave us some homework classifying numbers as RNA-like using a computer program with artificial intelligence. lunch. Then a lab with Susan. We completed a dilution series of E. Coli using good aseptic technique. Then we took petri dishes and poked our fingers in them to let whatever germs were on our fingers culminate in the dishes. Then Emily and I went to Dr. Yampolsky's lab to start our project. We melted some Lactose peptide agar to grow the slime mould on. dinner. Then we went to see a movie. Afterwards we ate TCBY and then came home.

Yesterday morning, Dr. Knisely demonstrated the difference between intelligent and unintelligent organisms using computer programs. He also demonstrated a neural network using the same media. lunch. Homework time. Then Kelly Harris came in to talk about Z-DNA. It is a type of DNA with a differently shaped structure than normal. This makes the Z-DNA unstable, so it can only be found in certain locations on the DNA strand, and occasionally only during certain times. She lectured about some of these special circumstances that allow Z-DNA to form. Then I went to housing to see if i could move into my dorm straight after summer session. Ultimate Frisbee. Beaucoup de pleuvre. Got drenched. Movie. Bed.

Yesterday morning Dr. Knisley came and lectured to us about neurons and some of their properties. Then we had homework time to work on the galla nation project. Lunch. More homework time, and then Dr. Helfgott came to lecture. We went over exponential functions and logarithms. Then the class worked some problems similar to the ones in demonstrated in his lecture. Dinner. Raquetball. MRN. sleep.

Yesterday morning Dr. Godbole lectured about Binomial Distribution. He gave us some formulas for approximating factorials of large numbers. One of the homework problems he gave us was really long. It was almost as if he had left out some information in the problem. We could solve it, it just took us half an hour to do it. We went to Olive Garden for lunch. Then Leanna's brother talked about some of the research he is involved in. He is trying to find an organism that will produce ethanol more effeciently and make the production of ethanol a one step process. In his research, he has classified a variety of aerobic and anaerobic organisms to see which organism could possibly do the job best. Then another speaker was scheduled to come, but we had the wrong time, so everyone left before he came. I stayed behind to finish Harry Potter because I was in the middle of the climax, so I heard the complication. We went to the CPA to play raquetball for a few minutes. We ate dinner, and then had a homework powwow. Bed.

This morning Dr. Godbole talked to us about probability of combinations of alleles and how to calculate them. He gave us some homework problems to work on. Lunch. I read a little bit more of Harry Potter before I went back to class. Then the biology majors went to advisement while the math majors went off to do whatever math majors do. Dr. miller talked to us Bio majors and answered any questions we had about our schedules. We then migrated back to Gilbreth to listen to Dr. Joplin explain his research. He is working on the isolation of diapause genes using microarrays. He said he has a lot of projects he is looking for people to help out with. It sounds like a good opportunity to get research experience as an undergrad. Then Kelly Harrison came and lectured to us about the evolution of cooperation in a society. We are going to the CPA this evening sometime to play soccer. Then dinner. Then sleep.

This morning Dr. Godbole lectured about probability distributions in a genetic context. He talked mostly about the probability of inheriting certain traits from parents, and how to figure it out mathematically. He gave us a couple of homework problems to do and to find examples of Simpson's paradox online. We had lunch and then I went back to the dorm to read Harry Potter and climb a tree for a few minutes. Then we all went back to class to listen to Dr. Zavada's lecture. He talked with us about our futures and what we plan to do with them.

On thursday morning, Dr.Miller went over the homework. Apparently, the reason certain questions were hard to find was because the database had been reformatted recently. After the lecture Everyone cracked down hard on the homework assingments we had, because they were starting to build up. Then Dr. Yampolsky came in and assigned us a group project to prove that our ancestors came from Africa. It took us a while to coordinate the project, but once we got that worked out it went smoothly. lunch. Then we went to the the quantitative biology conference at the Carneige hotel. They talked about what teaching methods were the most effective in the classroom. Then we went to Fun Expedition to play Putt-putt. The course was indoor, and half under black lights. Emily, Amanda, Lauren, and I found some glow in the dark paint that was still wet. So, we used it in a similar fashion to war paint. We emerged from the course with flourescent green and red paint all over our faces. Then we went to TCBY and got ice cream. We came back and I went to bed.

Dr. Miller showed us how to use the Ncbi database on Wednesday morning. It is a database of different genes and what they correspond to in different species. He gave us homework involving the website he introduced to us. Dr. Yampolsky asked us to read our Evolutionary Dynamics books through chapter 4. We ate lunch at the culp center. Later we all got on the database and looked up the homework. Some of the questions were difficult to find. I had to wait until the next day to compare answerswith everyone else.

Yestrday after lunch, Dr. Helfgott reviewed algebra concepts. We ate dinner and then went to Leanna's to decorate for the surprise party for joe's Birthday while Joe, Jeremy, Stefan and Wes were climbing. We ate cake and had lots of fun. Then we almost got lost on the way back to the dorms.
Tuesday:
Dr. Miller lectured this morning on the composition and mapping of genes. Lunch. I walked around campus and got a Tri- Cities phone book to see if there were any churches nearby. Dr. Karsai and Dr. Schmickl talked to us this afternoon about their research. Dr. Karsai's topic sounded intriguing. Computer time. This afternoon we are going to have a raquetball tournament in the mini-dome. Should be fun.

This morning we ate at Mcdonald's for breakfast. Then in class Dr. Miller lectured on cell's structures.afterwards we went through some parts of the intro to Maple. The computer program is really neat, it looks like it can compute anything. I hope we get more time to go through it. I'm off to lunch now!

I forgot to post on Friday, so I'm going to summarize what I can remember. In the morning everyone came over to our room to have a pancake breakfast. During breakfast, we watched the Freedom Writers, which is a very good movie. It was very emotionally moving, and I almost cried several times...We then ate lunch and Rendez-voued at the buiding where the lattice conference was taking place. The first talk was given by a graduate student on a formula of probability in different games she had derived. The second talk was about Chebechev polynomials and their useful properties. I liked this lecture a lot, because the speaker explained his subject material before jumping into it. This way people who didn't know what Chebechev polynomials were (us) could follow along easily.

Day4:
This morning Dr. Yampolsky went over the homework from last night. Then he gave us examples of how biology and mathematical reasoning have been used together to result in breakthroughs in the biological field. After lunch we went to see Harry Potter. It was wicked.We got back and ate dinner and played a couple games of volleyball. Then we retired to Amanda and Elizabeth's room to play cards for the rest of the evening. Phase ten is a very long card game...

Day 3:
this morning Dr. Yampolsky lectured about equilibrium and feedback in systems. After lunch,Katie ,Elizabeth and I went to Staples to purchase coloring necessities: markers, crayons and a coloring book. In the afternoon we played soccer for a few minutes before it started to downpour. Then we migrated to Elizabeth and Amanda's room to complete the homework we were assigned. The study session went really well, because everyone participated in the debate. Once finished, we switched rooms to watch the baseball game and U-tube. We found a really funny dance video that we want to remake...we'll see how that goes...

Day Two:
Yesterday morning Dr. Yampolsky lectured about the natural disorder of the universe, and probability. The homework we were given involed converting certain units to bits and bytes. In the afternoon Dr. Helfgott gave a algebra review. Every Monday we are scheduled to have a math lesson, and the professors alternate each week. Afterwards there was plenty of time to go to the CPA to play basketball and volleyball. Today we will have a lecture in the morning, and play soccer in the afternoon. Since we only have two things scheduled today, we should have a lot of free time.