June 26 MSTF SPIDER SILK

Today we had a silk meeting with everybody involved with the research. Dr. Yarger asked several questions to each person involved from graduate to undergraduate students and their particular area they were assigned to research. Dr. Yarger also stated or restated the priorities or the number one research goal. Dr. Yarger also addressed our team of teachers and graduate assistants concerning the progress of dissolving verses hydroxylation of webbing in various acids. He was very interested in our progress, which wasn’t much except on a simple qualitative level. We need more time to quantify the experiment. I suggested we use various concentrations of acids from 10 molar, 5 molar, and 1 molar. The problem is finding the specific concentrations and using dilution rates. It would be easier to use Deer Valley acid stock bottles and dilute from that point. It is surprising how much is not known about webbing in acids. It has not been researched from the standpoint of information that has been published. I enjoy being involved in real research that could assist the team in the characteristics of webbing!