Back into Science

Well, I am back to the blog. I took a three week hiatus to do my phlebotomy practicum (which was kinda cool) and then dove back into school this week (which was awesome). My classes this semester are Clinical Microbiology and Hematology/Coagulation, which means I spend 20 hours a week in the lab, and another 15 or so studying outside the lab. Fortunately, I love the material, so it makes school much more enjoyable.
So now that school is in session, I will be focusing more on Med Lab stuff, though I won't completely abandon science news, especially if it's exciting.

My first week of classes was mostly review, though they did cram a lot of new stuff down our throats, at least new to me. One teacher, who has been in the medical field all her life, and even took some med school classes at U of W, commented on how Med Techs know more about the medical laboratory then nurses and doctors (the exception being, of course, pathologists and other lab geeks). It certainly has been a crazy week. While in Hematology we're covering different microscope techniques and erythrocyte development, in Micro we mixed our own medias and did our first Gram stains.





And for exciting science news: IBM scientists have taken the first picture of a molecule. An actual molecule. You can see the bonds!
The molecule is pentacene, a chain of five benzene rings.


It's...so...beautiful. ^_^

Learn more here and here.