So today I did six different trials of the full surface treatment but with different buffers at the end to see if it affected the number of nonspecific protien interactions. Also this morning Rachid and I met again with Cedric and Antigone to talk about the status of the project. It was really interesting because most of the questions that get asked end up leading to basic physics principles and their direct application. For example, Rachid wants to use a different buffer but it would have to be heated to work, so Cedric pointed out that there would be a thermal gradient between the objective lens and the surface. This would induce some convective movements in the thin layer of oil in between the lens and the surface. In order to combat this we would have to make the objective lens the same temperature. Experiments with these types of requirements are normally done inside of a box which is kept at the same temperature always but this poses a problem for us because in order to align the laser it would be necessary to be able to see where it points on the ceiling. Additionally our frequent moving things in and out of the box would also change the temperature.
Then afterwards, Rachid and I went with Antigone to test which wavelengths of light the laser she uses has. We had to use a prism to seperate out the different frequencies and could clearly see a color difference between the various shades of blue and green. Because the laser has also seen many hours of work, two of the weaker frequencies had already stopped working and one of these was the one Antigone wanted.
Yesterday I did some data analysis until my matlab stopped working again :( and also as always assisted Rachid in the Lab with a few trials.
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