Anthony Ngo
The last week of the Stanford Earth Young Investigators...
posted August 4, 2016
The last week of the Stanford Earth Young Investigators is coming to close and it has become the most interesting summer that I’ve experienced. The abstracts and posters have been finalized for the most part. Lots of science around and about everybody’s posters. Can’t wait for the poster session on August 3rd, it’s gonna be exciting to see what the other interns have been researching and working on. It’s Alex’s birthday today, Noel baked him a cake. Happy birthday Alex and shoutout to Noel for the cake.
This internship is ending fairly soon and has put a lot of new things into perspective to me. First of all, I’m incredibly grateful that Stanford and the crew behind the internship offered this opportunity and I thank them for that. Next thing is that turns out science is really interesting and college is super close and that I really need to get focused in the next few months. So, science! If I could repeat this internship, I would. I might come back here next summer. Stanford’s been great. The people are cool. Palo Alto is general has been cool to explore in the short breaks between buses here and there. Sad that it ended this way though.
Coming into Room 220 in the Geology Corner...
posted July 20, 2016
Following the three weeks from the previous blog, the internship has truly become a highlight of my entire academic and personal career and history. Firstly, continuing the trend of praising the education presentations given by scientists, grad students, and so forth, the presentations have continued to be informative on both subjects of science and their personal paths on the way to becoming scientists. With the dread of senior year and the following college applications to come, I have come to heavily value each story of the upbringing that a majority of the presenters discuss as part of their routine. So far, it’s caused doubt, created insecurities, and made plenty of second thoughts about my own path to college among other things. However, the best thing to do right now, I believe for myself and others in similar positions, is to have confidence, or at least fake it ‘till you make it. I have confidence! I think. To an extent. Confidence right¿
The educational trip to Pinnacles was the most significant event to happen since the last blog post in my opinion for the reasons that it was cool to be exposed to a focused natural environment such as the natural park, be able to hike and view the rich history of a fault and former volcano through the rocks on the trail, and also, of course, be able to just have fun with the other interns. The ability to see, hear, and encounter aspects of the nature and environment at Pinnacles was great. The atmosphere was a bit eerie and vexing with the everlasting chirping of birds or insects at whatever time of the day, but seeing deer and hearing the scampering of raccoons was interesting. The hike that the day following the internship was really cool. The sights that the top of the trails had and the diversity in rocks made for a great time. The work that the trail put us through was overshadowed by the flow of new things to look at.
The relaxed environment that the trip had made for funny, fun, and silly times with other interns. Typically the work environment back in Geocorner is already a bit silly from the fact that we’re a bunch of teenagers with minimal supervision over a serious project, so the loose hinges that held us became unhinged after reaching the campsite capitalized that night at the campsite. The events that transpired were hilarious and painful, but great things emerged from that experience. I got to hang out with a super cool person. Shoutout to her.
The projects for the AGU meet in December have made some strides. My partner, Alexander, and I have made some workable progress since the first time we considered how to initiate the first step. Alexander has made some cool graphs that we will use in our poster in the future using R, which means a decent chunk of the work for our poster is now done. R is a complex tool that I would love to work more with in the future, hopefully, I get more opportunities utilize it further in the future. There are a lot of things to be done in the remainder of the project, but things look swell so far. It turns out though that organisms with larger body sizes cannot support as many unique ecological life modes, also known as ecospace, as organisms with smaller body size on average based on four phyla: Brachiopoda, Arthropoda, Chordata, and Mollusca.
The internship is, unfortunately, coming to a close in essentially two weeks from today. I would say I’m sad that it’s going to end so soon, but it’s better to make the most of the future as far I believe and what I’ve been told. Positives > Negatives
Coming into Room 220 in the Geology Corner...
posted June 29, 2016
Coming into Room 220 in the Geology Corner for close to three weeks now has left me pondering and excited for the rest of the summer internship in Stanford Earth. The multiple talks and presentations given so far by PhD’s and professors have caught my interest and are probably highlights from my time so far. Being educated on the hard science the presenters were conducting and also hearing about their stories provided plenty of food for thought on my own path to college and what to basically do with my life. I’ve been fairly indecisive when it comes to choosing what to major in, so the insight provided by the presentations have helped me understand a possible path well enough to consider it with a certain extent of confidence. I didn’t know what to expect fully when coming into the internship, but I’m glad the supervisors of the program decided to include these presentations over the course of the upcoming weeks.
As for the bulk of my time in the internship, collecting data on nematodes has been fun and interesting for the aspects that come with collecting data. Two aspects came up with collecting data from nematodes, which are learning the language R and meeting our interns better. Learning R and how to use it was a fulfilling experience and can’t wait to utilize it more in the future. I’ve dipped in coding before but never learned in a formal manner. Getting to know other interns was fun as well. The banter in between marking down the lengths of hundreds of species of nematodes was a fun time. The initial phase of the internship is coming to a close, but I look forward to the rest of the summer.