Today was our first semi-real day of the PROPHET program. We started out with a tour of the UMBS research facilities (everything from the atmospheric chemistry and meteorology instruments to the underground soil study laboratory). That was very interesting! There is so much neat research going on here! One study was subjecting plants to 700 ppm of CO2, the level that we will be at in about 50 years. They have found that plants grow a LOT faster, but have less N and protein so it takes more energy for creatures to digest them, energy that should be spent on growing and staying healthy! And so it goes, down the food chain... very scary.
After the tour, we had an ethics and professionalism class, which was headed by Beth (the administrator of the PROPHET program). We were given a little book to read on the topic, too. We got out of that class in time for lunch, and after lunch we had a TROPOSPHERIC OXIDANTS class, taught by Val Young. That was a little scary. It's been a while since I've had chem! The stuff we went over was mostly new to me, but for the chem majors it was really basic review. I learned quite a bit from just those two hours of class!
I am free for the rest of the night! I am going to go watch my roommate Michelle and some other people play basketball after I get done typing this up. :o) Tomorrow should be a pretty interesting day; I get to spend it all with my mentors! I don't know what I will be doing quite yet, but I will find out at breakfast tomorrow. :o)
