Cravings

I am having weird cravings for things that normally look as bad as road kill to me. I want to eat scrambled eggs and ketchup- I HATE both of those things, but I suddenly want to eat them. And I'm feeling the desire to munch sugar. I just ate 8 marshmellows. It's so weird, but my body is trying to tell me something... I don't eat much meat, so maybe I need protein. The sugar thing is a bit disturbing, however. I don't know what that's all about.

My own field assignment

Today I went on my own field assignment to KCC. I was out to find some mantis eggs and I found 2 sacs on a tree, so I stuck them in a ziplock baggie and took them home. Now I need a jar to keep them incubated. I wanted to take a hike up Diamond Head, but could you believe it? They were charging 6 bucks a head to get up there and I wasn't going to pay that just to do a little exploring and get a little exercise. So, I illegally went in the "No tresspassing zone," but then I felt something inside telling me to turn back, so I listened to my gut instinct and got off the mountain and went home. I think I might have swallowed at least a half gallon of water up there because it was so hot and dry. But, I've got mantis eggs now so I can finally start my experiment without worrying about losing my subjects.

I am finding that it's fun to be a biologist. Sissy English people just sit and read books all day and then when they make a newly found, abstract connection to their literature, they announce it and the whole world weeps. Historians just read bunches of old documents and claim that they understand what's going on. Mathematicians sit and work out hard math problems. But biologists- they go out there and get their hands dirty, and they're not too scared to do it. That's where the fun is. You gotta get down and dirty if you're gonna enjoy life- that's my philosophy:)

Scientific Dilema

OK. This isn't all that scientific, but I guess it works because it's pertaining to science. So, my mentor wants me to talk about my experiment to all sorts of behaviorists, but I don't know what I want to discuss. I don't have anything to discuss, actually, until I try stuff out and see what works and what doesn't. It's very frustrating for me because I don't want to disappoint my mentor, but at the same time, who's project is it? Oh pish, as my mom would always say. Life's too complicated.

The six families of odontocetes

Howdy yall, here are the six families of odontocetes (toothed whales for all you nonbiologists out there)

Ziphiidae- beaked whales
Physeteridae- sperm whales
Kogiidae- pygmy sperm whales
Phocoenidae- porpoises
Delphinidae- dolphins
Monodentidae- narwhals and belugas

You probably didn't need to know that, but it's kind of fun to know, anyway. Have fun and be weird...

Some interesting mantis behavior

Yesterday I was cleaning my mantises and I noticed some strange behavior. When I stuck my finger into the cup to gently scoop a mantis out, it ducked it's little head down and flattened its body to keep me from touching it- this reminded me of a puppy ducking down in submission. I have never seen anything like this before. If anyone out there has any advice as to what it could mean, I'm all ears.

Got mantis?

I am a mommy. I have 23 baby praying mantises living with me in my tiny little studio in Waikiki. Now, you might ask, what shall a young girl do with 23 young insects, when insects are such icky little beasts that might cause you to say "Eeeeeeeeek!," or "Gasp!" or "Ewwwww!" If you ever said any of these words in front of me, I would hate you for life. Just kidding, but I would be offended. So, I am going to train them... to be my army- ha ha ha ha... Just kidding again. I am going to train them to avoid bad tasting food based on motion cues. It turns out that these little guys hunt prey based on motion, so that's why I think they might be able to learn prey recognition from motion cues. So, I'll keep you updated. Maybe I'll have baby pictures of my own to send, but for now, I have this picture of a baby mantis whom I've never seen before.

How to Synthesize o-ethoxybenzaldehyde from phenol, methanol, and hydrochloric acid

Take the methanol and add 10% hydrochloric. This will form methylchloride. Then, react the methyl chloride with phenol in aluminum chloride (AlCl3). This will form o-methylphenol. React with sodium hydride, which will remove the proton from the hydroxy group, and react with methylchloride to perform an SN2 reaction. React the compound with KMnO4, forming o-ethoxybenzoic acid. Then, react with LiAlH4 in water, turning the carboxylic acid to an alcohol. React again with PCC, and you have your compound- o-ethoxybenzaldehyde, a structural analogue to vanillin.

2-Heptanone

Hi,
In ochem lab, we had a bunch of unknowns to identify and I identified 2 of them (out of 3 thus far), but then the third one threw me for a loop cause the H NMR sucked. The integration units were totally off and I didn't know what to do. So I talked to the teacher- she's awesome by the way- I love her and I wish I had her for ochem I- and she told me that my H NMR was junk and that I probably had a methyl ketone. So, I looked and looked and looked, and compared the C NMR, which said that I had 7 different carbons, and the only one that sorta made sense was 2-heptanone, but what irks me is that it only had 5 peaks, when there was 6 types of protons. Anyways, I confirmed it with the teacher again and she said it was probably correct. I think that the signals from two adjacent types of protons were combining to give one weird signal. Interesting. Very interesting.