Friday, July 26, 2013
By:
The work that I have done this summer has been a bit erratic. I have worked with a number of different approaches to studying Eta Carinae, including principal component analysis, three-dimensional hydrodynamic modeling, and observational analysis. I have thoroughly enjoyed each one. However, my poster presentation for this next week is about a single topic, preferably something that has been completed (or nearly so). Most interns at Goddard have had a single project that they have been working on, and that is what they will be presenting next Thursday. Since I have been all over the place with mine, we figured that I should pick one thing to be the focus of the poster. It was a brilliant idea…
… until we realized how much work was going to be needed to go into fleshing out that one thing into an entire completed poster. Each addition to the poster or the project gives rise to a new aspect of the research that we need to consider. However, the dice had been cast, and the abstract submitted. Using all of the skills that I’ve acquired so far this summer, along with the ones I brought with me, I have been furiously working to compile a mostly completed scientific presentation. This has involved delving through the stacks of scientific papers that had been given to me at the beginning of the summer, as well as looking up a few more. Tom has been helping me along the way, providing me with tips, suggestions, and hints on how to improve my poster and the research.
The poster is coming along, despite the difficulties presented. I’ve been surprised at how well the graphics are turning out, and adding the logos of those involved adds a nice little touch. There alongside each other sit the NASA logo, the SPS logo, and a Utah State University logo. They sit there representing the deep tradition of research, excellence, and the love of science that each organization holds. They present me with bold encouragement and a pleasant push forward: Carry on, for there is much to be discovered, and time waits for no man.
Darren McKinnon