Drndic Lab Blog

This is a start of a new Blog, in 2021, inspired by Laura’s  blog when she was in our lab…

http://upennnanolab.blogspot.com/2015/06/lab-work-is-going-well-i-have-been-and.html

It will probably mostly end up being about food, plants and such… maybe dance…

Saturday, June 13, 2015

Lab work is going well! I have been measuring and labeling the pictures of the WS2 membranes that I took under the microscope. On Thursday, I became trained to use HF which is an essential component to etching our WS2 membranes. HF training is necessary because HF is a chemical that binds with calcium and is not felt when spilled on the skin. To prevent HF accidents, it is important to wear a face mask, apron, and chemical gloves. If HF contact is made with skin, the area of contact should be rinsed and a chemical called Calgonate applied. The Calgonate will bring the HF to the surface and give it something with which to bind.

Fridays are fun days in the Drndic lab. In the morning Chef Physicist David bakes bread from scratch and around noon, our group goes to lunch together.
December 2020 (Marija is writing)

Friday, December 25, 2020

We’ve mostly been meeting over Zoom these days. Paul is leaving for his new position in Mark Hersam’s lab at Northwestern. Rachael is applying for grad school.  Killian is working hard with Josh on an exciting paper, and I’m enjoying daydreaming about possibilities as we work on it.  The gas paper with Manchester was published, so I’m thinking about new ideas along those directions; if you have good suggestions please email me.

Friday, January 1, 2021

First off,  the only thing I wish for is good health. The rest comes or doesn’t come, depends on a person or doesn’t depend on a person. At least one is alive.
On other topics… Today, we were working on the response to reviewers for a paper that got pretty good reviews and I kind of like the paper, I think we did a good job. Reflecting on writing takes time and I like to give it time, while I do other things like cooking, for idea-sizzling in the head… that’s what I like about basic science, it’s not like industry…  you can be like an artiiiiiist..
I also worked on some text for a grant proposal – pretty cool ideas, but I’m not going to tell them to you.
Besides that, I repotted a cactus plant today and feel pretty happy about that. The cactus seems to be very happy.  I also ate some REALLY good baklava! Bye for today, I’m going to work more on the proposal now (it’s 10pm).
I also wasted some time on Twitter… what a waste of human capital.. :), but it’s like knitting… kind of a distraction. Social media are mostly a gigantic waste of time 🙂 – better go do something…

Sunday, January 24, 2021

We recently submitted two papers one on nanopores (cool stuff by Killian, Scottie and Josh, you’ll see) and one on TEM images of nanopores (by Josh and our alumni Adrian), so I hope to post you on this soon.

Besides that, the lavender plant flourished today, which was a big highlight of my day today,  I’m going to repot it and I ordered a big window planter so that the plant can have more space. I’m surprised how frequently I have to water it, otherwise the leaves droop. As I’m doing all this, I’m getting some other cool ideas about electrons, but I’m not going to tell you now.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Time flies when you are having fun. We have some new lab members, Scottie, Parisa, Kyril and Rachael is staying in the lab for her PhD.  Priyanka is leaving us in May for Intel, lots of fun ahead! We also had at least two group lunches at the Penn Museum garden, and that was so cool, surrounded by the fountain with fish and the beautiful cherry trees in peak bloom.  And of course nobody really on campus, which is nice for a change.

Among other news, here is my baby sunflower. New life. I planted it about 10 days ago, and now it’s in baby form :). It grows about 3 mm per day right now. That means in 10 days it may be 3 cm and in 100 days it may be 30 cm, let’s see.

August 2021

Pictures that do not need commentary (Drndic lab yacht :)).

Summer 2022

Sabbatical academic year 2022/23

Summer 2022 Cavtat, Croatia