I had a good first day at RTI!
We were first given a general overview of RTI and its mission: to improve the human condition. While broad, this mission was one of my main draws to RTI in the first place. I love science, and I love that at RTI, it is being applied to solve real and pressing problems around the world. It was inspiring to see a place where science is not merely isolated to a laboratory.During the initial presentation we also learned about some of the many projects we will be exposed to during our short time at RTI. I was really impressed by the range of work done there, ranging from public health to social policy to energy research. The two biggest projects focus on reinventing the toilet in India (funded by the Gates Foundation) and preventing HIV infection for women in Africa. What struck me about both of these projects was that here in the US, we take the solutions to the problems they are trying to solve for granted. There are toilets that flush everywhere we go and there are drugs that have proven to be almost 100% effective in preventing HIV infection. The problem lies in the specific environment: villages in India don’t have the appropriate infrastructure to support flush toilets and women in Africa are shunned if they are seen taking medication. Thus, a solution has to be found for that specific environment, which requires understanding the local culture. I found the problem to be an intriguing blend of social and natural science.
We did do some work in the lab today, but purely for demonstrative purposes, which is what the majority of our work in the lab will be. We conducted an experiment that will determine how different additives affect the hydration process of cement. Since the hydration process is exothermic (releases heat), the different cement mixtures were placed in a calorimeter, a device that measures that heat. It was very cool to see a real calorimeter in action, as in the calorimetry experiments we did in class, we used makeshift calorimeters made from foam coffee cups that yielded results with about 2000% error. We prepared four cement mixtures, each containing 300g cement and 120g water. One was a control, one had 3g maltodextrin (a sugar) added, one had 3g calcium chloride (a salt) added, and one had 1.5g calcium chloride added. We set up the experiment today to run overnight, so I’m excited to return tomorrow and see the results!
Fun fact: cement is the powdery mixture that is mixed with water and hardens, the hardened product made from cement is called concrete.