Houston Natural History Museum

On Saturday June 7th all the intern students who had arriven (8/12 of us!) decided to do a day trip into downtown Houston.

Our residence and workplaces are in the Clear Lake area, which is part of the Greater Houston Area to the southwest of the downtown core.  It is approximately a 40 minute drive into Houston, (with no transport services) making trips an exciting experience!  Carpooling is advantageous, as four interns have vehicles.

We all bought tickets to the Scotland vs. U.S. rugby match (why not?  New experiences!), and decided that beforehand we would visit the Natural History Museum and go for dinner.  Dinner was at a Mexican restaurant, and by heavens, Mexican food is understandably amazing in Texas.

The museum delighted us geology students with its paleontology and mineral exhibits.

"But first, let me take a selfie."
With Stephan and Tim

There was a special exhibit on gemstone carving.  There is definitely a masterful display of skill in these pieces. 

Almost all the stones carved were agates.  Agates are a microcrystalline variety of quartz which have been used in artwork and jewellery around the world for millennia.

Agates have a hardness of 7 on Moh's scale, making them considerably harder to carve than soapstone or marble.
Diamond bit tools are required.

There is an exhibit specifically devote to Petroleum Geology.  I was rather excited to go through that.
The exhibit featured various remote sensing and geophysical exploration methods, as well as different aspects of drilling procedures.

Dinosaurs!  Not quite the Drumheller museum, but still pretty fantastic!

"Okay guys, look scientific"
The polished petrified wood slices were really fantastic.  The amount of variety in colour was incredible.  Some were black and white, others had vivid reds and yellows.

A lot of the fossils were stunning.   I wish I could decorate my place with these!

The amount of detail in these fossils is very impressive.

This ichthyosaur was pregnant at the time of death.
You can see some of the remnants of her progeny.

Quetzalcoatlus is a genus of Pterosaur, which contains the largest known flying animals.  They have a 10m wing span.
I could ride this into battle.

This is the tallest amethyst cathedral I have ever seen.
For scale, I am 5'7".

Stibnite is one of my favourite minerals, and I have never previously seen a specimen larger than one of these blades.
Stibnite is a sulphide, and is the most common ore mineral for antimony, (Sb2S3)

"The Dragon" - Native gold.
This is easily the one of the most impressive mineral specimens I have ever seen.
Photo credit to Stefan.

I didn't take too many photos of the mineral exhibit, because honestly, everything in there was fantastic and I couldn't prioritize.  My camera was also running out of battery.

We went to the rugby match, which was exciting!  Scotland won, 24-6!  God save the Queen!  Tim, Stefan and I beamed with Commonwealth pride.

Happily sitting in the nosebleeds. 

All in all, it was a great day with great people.  I hope we get to do more fun outings in the future.

The Lunar and Planetary Institute

This is the Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI).  They are a part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), providing support services to NASA.

You can learn a lot about the organization at their website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu

I also highly recommend following them on Facebook, as they are constantly posting interesting astronomical events, as well as the latest photos and research updates from across the planetary science community.

Half of the interns are stationed here, and half of are at the Johnson Space Centre (JSC).  I am one of the LPI interns, and I think our building is significantly prettier.

Main lobby at the visitor's entrance

The walls are all decorated with all kinds of maps and lunar/planetary images.  It is really beautiful and facinating.

Pretty stairway near visitor's entrance

Maps of creators on Mars

Moon maps along hallway

Research posters along hallway

Entrance to Lecture Hall (Why is Venus smaller than the other planets? Injustice!)

Typical scientist lounge - A plethora of comfy couches, academic posters, and a white board

My work space is the library, a concept which I consider to be academic heaven.  The library itself happens to be one of the most beautiful parts of the Institute.

Entrance to library

This display changes on a weekly basis - This week its for us!

I don't even know why this telescope is here, but it's awesome!  There are smaller telescopes which are available for borrowing

The books on these shelves are all educational materials for grade school programs

This section contains general science textbooks, while the rest of the library is devoted to space and geoscience related topics.  There is also a very extensive collection of lunar and planetary maps.

Some of the shelves are decorated with Lego and other models

The librarian said that everyone at LPI placed at least one piece on this Lego Curiosity, making it a collaborative team project.  I think that is pretty neat, and fits with the spirit of the success of the Curiosity mission.

My first day of work involved learning as much as I can about Venus' topology.  I pulled up a detailed map and a model of Venus for visual reference as I read the book.  Sitting across from me is my colleague, Molly.

Shelves of models beside our desks

Unfortunately, you can't get a good picture of the deer outside due to the reflectance of the windows, but they get very close!

I love that my desk is right beside a window; I've seen quite a lot of wildlife so far.  In fact, I'm actually really, really amazed by all the wildlife I've seen.  On a few days, we saw pairs of does grazing, and lying down just outside our windows.  On one day, a herd of six bucks with their antlers coming in walked past. We've also seen turkey vultures, egrets, red cardinals, scores of dragon flies and large yellow butterflies. The librarian says that in the summer, we'll start seeing bunnies too.  

I can't believe how lucky I am to be able to work in such an amazing place. I genuinely look forward to going into work every morning.  I also have a fantastic advisor, Dr. Allan Treiman, who is an absolute pleasure to work with.  I will write more about our project in a later post.

Thank you to everyone who helped me get here!

Johnson Space Center Tour

This is exciting.

I mean really exciting.

It's the JOHNSON SPACE CENTER!

ERMAGERD! JERHRNSERN SPERCE CERNTER!

*Ahem*

So, a lovely lady from the Universities Space Research Association drove me and a few others to the center for our tour.  Since we didn't have our badges yet, we needed her to get us on to the site and help us through the badge process.  Timothy (a gent from Leeds!  Remember that place?) and I were given special badges as "Foreign Nationals", indicating that we require an escort with us at all times on the premises, lest I be arrested for being Canadian.   This was the third time that my fingerprints have been taken over the course of this trip.  I'm not sure why this was necessary, given that on my extremely long visa application I clearly indicated that I'm not a spy. ("Are you coming to the United States for the purposes of espionage Y/N?"  along with other classics such as, "Are you involved with human trafficking Y/N?" and "Have you ever funded terrorist activities Y/N?")

I'm glamorous

After going through the security clearances, we were able to get back in the vehicle and drive to the building of our tour.  The NASA grounds are highly expansive- you pretty much need a vehicle to drive between buildings.

We waited in the lobby for our guides to arrive.  One of the USRA ladies took pictures of us posing next to a life-sized signed cutout of Buzz Aldrin on the moon. (I will post this as soon as I can.)

Our tour consisted of two parts:  The Lunar Tour and the Stardust Lab.

The Lunar Tour was first.  We learned that samples from space are often kept in pristine condition by reducing the amount of potential interaction with other substances.  We were required to dress up in bunny suits to keep dust and air born particles at a minimum in the facility.  We even waited in a small chamber for the air to purify before being admitted to the Lunar room.  The curator lady informed us that we were in a "Class 1000" room, meaning that there were <1000 particles per cubic meter of air.  For scale, average air is on the order of ~1,000,000 particles per cubic meter.

And we saw moon rocks!  Rocks!  From the moon!  The moon!

Among specimens, we saw a volcanic breccia, vesicular basalts and rocks that had been partially flash melted from meteor impact. The left rock on the upper photo shows some interesting impact pits.  Our guide informed us that these features can be used as "proof" that the rocks did indeed come from the moon, because they are not found anywhere on Earth, and have not been able to be replicated in a lab.

We also saw the Genesis Rock, which is dated at 4.2 billion years old, making it older than oldest known crustal rock on earth, the Acasta Gneiss, at 4.02 billion.   In Historical Geology class in 2011, I held a piece of the Acasta Gneiss and thought to myself, "This is the oldest rock I will ever see,".  There is something very special about being proven wrong, and experiencing things that continuously push the limits of what I thought possible.

The Stardust lab is where the analysis of space particles takes place.  We weren't able to go into this lab, (which is Class 10!) but we were able to look in through a window, and see some samples of the aerogel used to capture the particles.  I remember images of the aerogel was going around Facebook awhile back, so I was thrilled to see it in person.

Arrival in Houston

Hello!  I'm not dead.  In fact, I have arrived safely in Houston, Texas!

Upon debarking the plane, I turned left and did a little dance to see a NASA gift shop right there.  The first thing I see at my new destination.  I took this as a good omen.

I did not plan my arrive too well.  I saw a Camden food Co, thought, "Oh wow!  I should eat something!  No wait!  I should get my luggage first!"  Upon receiving my luggage, I thought, "I should get a taxi straight away!"  Only to arrive at my residence with no food and no grocery store within walking distance.  Clever girl.

I was actually quite impressed during the taxi ride, despite traversing the outskirts of Houston suburbs instead of through the downtown core.  I had never seen an interstate highway before, so the 12 lane monstrosity that we cruised down broke my mind.  The interstate intersections(?) were aerial labyrinths of overhead passe spiraling and cutting across one another.  It honestly looked like something from a science-fiction film from my perspective.  I found it amusing how the Shell and McDonald's signs were at least 40 feet up in order to be seen from the highway.

Upon arrival, the taxi driver courteously lent me his phone to call the building manager, given that I had arriven after hours.  I promptly filled out some forms and was handed my keys.  All good.  My apartment was an empty mess.  Less good.   I resolved to do a sweep, and buy a shower curtain and toilet paper as soon as possible.

My fantastically generous roommate, Allie, was away the evening of my arrival, but she left a note on the counter saying that I could make myself a cheese sandwich if I needed.  I gratefully did just that.

I used my free time that evening to tour the gated apartment grounds.  I'm delighted to report that our accommodations have an outdoors pool, hot tub, volleyball court, picnic tables and BBQ.  I suspect we'll have a pool party in the near future (perhaps for my birthday?).  The common room is also equipped with a t.v. and a piano.  Perhaps I'll make use of my evenings and learn to play, or at least finally be able to work through, "Un Comptine d'un autre été" completely- a task I had abandoned since the piano in Boddington Hall back in England.

It's time for a new adventure.