Gems & Giants

I always get excited when new beads are on the way. I just ordered materials that will be used to make our first ever fall collection (at the AARI Gift Shop) and I can't wait for them all to arrive. Autumn foliage and Halloween served prominently as inspirations in my designs so you can expect to see lots of chalcedony (carnelian, sardonyx, bloodstone, agate, etc.), volcanic scoria, tiger eye, garnet, red jasper, and fire opal Swarovski crystal accented by rich gold and copper in our inventory this fall. My heart is literally fluttering with anticipation; almost like falling in love! Seriously!

That's not all I have to be excited about... Today, I start working on GUVs, otherwise known as giant unilamellar vesicles. After two solid months of amino acid and lipid adsorption isotherms (and my first lot of publishable data), I am soooooo ready for change. That's the thing with me-- I need to circulate projects every so often to ward off boredom and minimize frustration. In the past, I've worked for people who were content to have me do nothing but reproduce other people's results over and over and over. Not only did this stifle my creative spirit, but it effectively shut down any opportunities I would have had to publish original research. Trust me. If innovation is what your pioneering spirit craves, then the life of a lab technician isn't for you. If you don't mind the monotony and you'd rather not be published, then maybe it is. Thankfully for me, my PI seems to want to move forward as much as I do (well, most of the time, anyway).

GUVs can be up to 100um in diameter!

So, I expect to spend the day in my nice, comfy office pouring over the papers of my predecessors and trying to figure out what I need to get started. It would be nice to have this project off the ground before classes start in just a few weeks. Dr. Sahai and I still haven't discussed which courses she'd like me to take (she's been on medical leave for the last few weeks) so it could be anything from fluff to the hardest science in the catalog. One thing she did already make clear however, is that she expects me to keep those As rolling in! No pressure though, right?

Welcome to the “A” factory! My office in it’s current state.

Changes at AARI

I've come to a decision regarding AARI and the gift shop. Since coming to UW-Madison, I have had very little time to pursue the development of AARI. My research activities in the Sahai lab require over 60 hours a week; leaving little time for much else. With the start of the academic year almost upon us, I have decided to introduce changes which will allow me sufficient time to keep up with my scholarly activities while maximizing any remaining time to continue working towards AARI's vision of establishing a research laboratory and museum for astrobiology in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada.

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

I feel it would be most beneficial to our cause to shift our focus to fundraising and outreach efforts almost exclusively for at least this next year. Since it will be at least a few years until my doctoral degree is complete and I will be able to return to Canada full-time, this change should not drastically limit our potential and may even give us more options to expand in the future. This brings me to changes where the AARI Gift Shop is concerned. I have decided that based on customer feedback, it would be in our best interest to move away from lower-cost, simpler items and instead focus on high-quality, one-of-a-kind pieces.

It has also been difficult to find bead suppliers locally in Madison that offer the raw materials we need at a reasonable price. To circumvent this problem, all of our supplies will be ordered in from elsewhere. This means that we won't be able to maintain as large an inventory as we have now. To preserve variety, we are also going to start offering items on a seasonal basis. Every three months, all pieces will be swapped out of inventory for new ones. This should help us to keep wait-times (between the time at which an order is placed and the date upon which orders arrive at their final destinations) down to a minimum because we will only have to keep certain stones in stock; those featured during a particular season. This fall we will only be keeping sizeable quantities of stones with colors which reflect the season. Of course, we will still be able to fill custom orders but that will come with the expectation that customers may have to wait an additional week or two for supplies to reach us.

I hope to start making changes to the website this weekend and our new supplies should begin to arrive within days. I'm not yet sure of the precise date upon which the change to seasonal stocking will occur but I'm hoping for late-August/early September. That, of course, will depend on my workload in the Sahai lab.

These changes to our online store should help to ramp up our fundraising efforts because each item sold will be able to bring in more money for our start-up fund per piece and it will be easier to keep up with the pace at which orders come in while I'm engaged in my research and other scholarly activities. I really do hope this works out in the long run. I thoroughly enjoy making jewelry. It's a good creative outlet and stress reliever for me and it gives me a way to raise money for astrobiology without compromising my other responsibilities here at UW. I only hope that economic recovery is just around the corner so that even more people can enjoy our jewelry and help us raise money for research at the same time.