I Have Been Assigned

I've worked an entire week. It's a new thing for me, actually. Here is your desk, here is your key, here is your computer. I've never done an 8-hours-a-day something in my life; I'm used to switching pursuits throughout the day. Go to this class, finish that homework, study for that one quiz. Now I have a chair.

On Monday, they gave me a paper to read because the lab was chaotic--my professor is also a dean, so he has a college {or department, I'm not really sure} to keep up with--and no one seemed to know quite what to do with me. I use paper in the loosest possible way, however. It was technically a Review {I did not know until this week that such things existed}, and it was 29 pages long. Twenty-nine pages of really big words. It took me two days to read.

The Review was written by my professor and another professor who is very involved in our group. It was about the making of solar cells using organic {as opposed to synthetic} substances, which was a little frustrating to read when I wasn't even sure I would be working with solar cells this summer! However, the minute I got to the last page of the paper, a bachelor student stopped by my office and asked if I wanted to observe the making of a solar cell.

Um, yeah!

I spent the next few days dividing my time between even more papers and watching the creation of a solar cell. We basically take a square of glass about the size of your thumbnail and proceed to layer it with several solutions and substances. Scientifically, we are separating electrons {negatively charged} from their cozy, positive little homes--called "holes"--and making it difficult for them to rejoin. The input of photons from sunlight makes it even harder for them to get back, so they do a lot of work. We convert that work into energy, and viola! Sun-generated electricity.

Basically.

And ideally.

And yeah, that was the brief and Melody version. Once I understand it better, I'll write a more comprehensive post about it. {One does not understand something until one can explain it in one's own words, methinks.}

I heartily recommend the method of interspersing lab time with paper time. The latter part of this week has been a constant alternating of squinting at papers, observing in the lab, and returning to the papers to realize that I actually know what's going on. It definitely speeds up the learning curve process. The people here know that, too. They truly want me to actually understand things; they're all cheering for me, and I never feel any sort of low expectation since I'm just an undergraduate.

Yesterday, I attended my first group meeting. I was introduced, and everyone knocked heartily on the table. For me, I realized, as I sat in confusion. Knocking here is a more formal way of clapping, which is reserved for less academic and formal events {like for the fire-dancers at the Campuslichter}. But it was my introduction that gave the most happiness; I was said to be working with particular people on a particular project. I have been assigned. Solar cells it is.

There are a few different kinds of solar cells. New methods are being invented all the time because of the constant push to make them a) more efficient, and b) cheaper. The more I read and hear about my specific niche, the more excited I am about it. Next week I'm going to do more observing and helping. I can't wait! Their labs are a joy to work in, besides. They have windows. Real, natural sunlight. Someone from another university was here this week; he, myself, and an American in the group have been trying to tell the Germans here how awesome this is. They are amused, I think.

Now for a three-day weekend!