This is great!

The program at RICE is just great. We are right in the middle of everything. The other teacher in my lab is having a good time. We have to interview one of every kind of person, and in 3 days I think she got everyone but the janitor already - she's very efficient. She may end up being my boss in a few years if I try and go to work at her school.

I watched a liquid seperation and concentration process using a rotovap (Rotating Evaporater). A vacuum is used to lower the vapor pressure allowing liquids to boil at a much lower temperature, such as water boils at 212 F° which is 100 C°. Under the vacuum, you can get the water to boil at 80 C° or even lower. Dry ice is used to cool the evaporated vapor condensing back into a liquid. Its a slow and tedious process to do it right and carefully. We do a batch about every 45 minutes.

During downtime, there are some great intellectual conversations about either high school, grad school or science and technology.