Discovery
Corps Visits GEMSEC
By Bianca Barnes, Discovery
Corps Class VII
Editor's note: members
of our Discovery Corps recently visited the UW. Here is a
recap of the day by student Bianca Barnes.
The Discovery Corps
field trip to the Genetically Engineered Materials Science
and Engineering Center (GEMSEC) labs at the University of
Washington was very interesting. First, my group went to
see the scanning electron microscope. It was very cool
since I had never seen one in person. The scientist who
demonstrated it told us a lot of interesting things about
how the microscope works. We got to see how he prepared
things like pearls and mouse teeth for viewing. He had a
special machine that used argon gas to cover the pearls
with titanium so they could be seen easier. Then he took us
over to the actual microscope and showed us how powerful it
was. They even used a smaller unit of measure than a normal
microscope because the scanning electron scope could see
way smaller. It was really cool to see the structure of the
pearls up close. I had always thought they were smooth on
the inside like they were on the outside, but they were
really full of ridges and waves.
Next, we went with
another scientist to learn about amino acid compounds and
proteins. It was really interesting to learn about the uses
for proteins and peptides in different types of animals and
organisms. My favorite part of the presentation was the 3D
glasses. They worked differently than the simple red and
blue glasses. We got to see 3D images of peptides and their
components. They were very complicated but they were
interesting to see, especially as we got around to the
other demonstrations.
Our third presentation was by a scientist
who explained what she did with various types of peptides.
She basically experimented with several peptides to see
which ones bound to certain materials. She did show us
peptides in a dye that made them glow on her computer
screen, and glowing peptides are always fun.
When she was done, she
passed us off to a grad student who showed us how they
stored and separated the peptides used to bind to different
materials. He showed us a little area used when dealing
with harmful chemicals. It had a special fan that sucked
air away from the scientist so he or she didn't get hurt.
He also showed us a procedure that solidified peptides that
were in a solution. That was cool because they used dry ice
to freeze it and a vacuum machine to finish the job. We
also talked to two scientists who showed us an experiment
they were doing with peptides and cobalt, which was kind of
cool.
Our last visit was to a scientist who showed us a
microscope that I didn't even know existed. This one worked
kind of like a record player by reading bumps and ridges in
a material with a super tiny point. They use these readings
to form images of the material. The microscope was a lot
smaller than the scanning electron microscope, which made
it more portable, but it didn't produce as many pictures as
fast as the scanning electron microscope. He also took time
to explain how the research done at the GEMSEC labs could
lead to new natural ways to create things like ceramics and
computer chips. He told us that animals in nature had been
making things like magnets and ceramics way better than
humans for hundreds of years and that if we found ways to
make things naturally, we'd have fewer factories and less
pollution.
Although it was a ton of information in a
short amount of time, it was cool to learn about the
research going on in the GEMSEC labs and how it just might
help me in the future.
For more information about GEMSEC, visit
→
depts.washington.edu/gemsec/
If you know of a young person who may be interested in
Pacific Science Center's Discovery Corps program, please
visit →
PacSci.org/DiscoveryCorps/
