Research is taking off

Without getting into too many details about what I do researchwise at SRU, to continue my anonymity--I do synthetic chemistry of one sort or another, and it's basically exploratory. The same was true of my undergraduate research at WLAC, actually, though my CIT research was very focused on a certain end goal. Sure, I have a general aim, or at least an ideal goal, but anything new and interesting I make is good news, and because I am not externally funded by an industry partner whose specific goals must be accomplished (unlike at CIT), I get to pursue whatever comes up, at least to some extent.

So anyway, yesterday while going through my samples I've made in the three weeks (okay, four, but I was out sick the second week) I've been at SRU I found that I'd made something that appears, from my first type of scan on it, to be new! I'm terrifically excited by this, as are Drs. TX and GE. It's interesting--in all my reactions so far, of which there are nearly 100, I've failed to make any known compounds, but I do appear to be able to make a family of new ones. The best I hoped for was occasionally making something known so that I could understand what factors influence the formation of these known compounds.

Speaking of having made almost 100 samples and filled up a third of my first lab notebook: it's weird how different this setup is from my undergrad research. There, I could make two samples at a time. Each took about a week from start to finish before analysis, with about ten hours per pair of actual time spent in lab over that time, plus an extra hour or two for analysis. This stuff? I can make four samples at a time, and from start to finish it's under two and a half hours for all four. Plus I don't have a lot of other obligations at the moment, which really helps. But the contrast is startling!

Anyway, I'm still celebrating making something new. This is what I really enjoy in chemistry, and it's wonderful to have a reminder of that. I've missed it since WLAC.