Belgium chocolate Sea horses in the break room Slightly melted bliss From https://www.amazon.com/Guylian-Belgium-Chocolates-Artisanal-Signature/dp/B006LP0MO2/ref=pd_sim_gro_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0V1P9SJKTTFTN6EB5944 Somebody brought in a box of slightly melted and resolidified chocolates (BELGIAN chocolates) for the coffee room in lab today. I usually leave sweets for the evenings, but I feared they would be long gone by the…

My laundry is all folded and put away. I did all the dishes. It's that kind of week. I woke up early yesterday to start a procedure in lab. We wanted to make the job take 1 day instead of the usual 2. (The deal was that I go in…

On Sunday morning, when I left my dorm to go get lunch, I saw a friend longboarding back carrying a soda in a yellow cup in his right hand and a bag in his left. The soda cup, I recognized quickly, was from Which Wich, a sandwhich chain that recently…

Bikes. Bikes are beautiful. They are freedom-giving (but less expensive than cars). They are adventure-providing (but less scary than motorcycles). They are great. Since my bikes (I have 2. One for triathlons and one for training and commuting.) are stuck in Minnesota, never to know the wonderful weather of Pasadena,…

I think it's safe to say most of us spend the majority of our time indoors. Most of us sleep and eat indoors, anyway. Working indoors just seals the deal for me. I like to do something outside at least once a day. Taking a stroll or going for a…

One neat thing about Caltech is that it's part of a big Caltech-JPL community. A fair number of clubs are open to undergrads, grad students, and staff from Caltech and JPL. This means that even though we have a relatively small student body, there are often enough people that we…

Happy Fugu Fish Friday! Modified from https://www.factzoo.com/sites/all/img/fish/fugu.jpg Quick Fugu Facts: The Fugu Genome Project was finished after the Human Genome Project, but was still only the second project to sequence a vertebrate genome and release it to the public. The genome ofTakifugu rubripes, one species of fugu fish, is available…

My name is Ariel. My favorite color is glow-in-the-dark (don't tell me it's not a color). I like zombie apocalypse fiction and postmodern poetry. I like my water cold from a Brita filter in the fridge and I take my tea-drinking seriously. I'm also a sophomore biology major at Caltech.…

Today I enjoyed the products of yesterday's labor! I introduce: Homemade cookie dough frozen yogurt! My friend Mark and I used this recipe yesterday, and it turned out much better than I'd even hoped. I've made ice cream many times before, but I've always used an ice cream maker. This…

I reference my SURF topic in my post about SURF proposals, but I thought I'd elaborate more on what I'll be doing here, while I wait for April 1 to hear whether my proposal has been accepted. Albedo describes what fraction of the light that hits a surface is reflected.…