First Full Day at the Science Intership

I met Brittany today! She's a graduate student who works for Mariana. Brittany is really nice and took the time to show me how the lab works and how she measures the wavelengths of light coming from a computer or phone. We measured the wavelengths of my iPhone 4G and found that looking at a white background on the highest brightness setting in the dark would slightly decrease someone's melatonin levels. Since melatonin helps people sleep, decreasing it would cause someone to feel more awake. I also got to measure the pupil of my eye when looking at the screen with different light intensities and backgrounds. My pupil became smaller when the phone was at its highest brightness level with a white background. This device that measures it was made by someone in the lab as well as the program they use to measure the wavelengths. I also learned about goggles that the scientists at the lab would give to their subjects. These goggles had different color lights attached and so would effect one's melatonin levels in different ways. Blue decreased the levels the most, while red decreased the levels the least. After working in the lab, we went back to Brittany's work space and I helped label test tubes that were going to be used in an experiment on November 18th. The test tubes were for peoples' saliva; melatonin levels can be measured through those samples. I learned so much today and had a lot of fun too!