Research projects

I haven't had much time for research during my maternity leave.  Sadly, its been limited to researching ideas that I will never follow through with on Pinterest and Houzz.   I've also learned to use Angie's List for more practical domestic research.  

As much as I love my time at home right now, I'm starting to get the itch for lab work again.  There's just something about experimental design, micropipetting, and crunching numbers that I really miss.  As delightful as my Bayou Babies are, it's really hard to define all of their variables, let alone control any of them!  

So, I signed Priya and myself up to participate in a research study at Tulane Medical School.    The study focuses on the impact of stress on bonding and infant development, and they are recruiting 500 mom-baby pairs.    Talk about a lot of variables!  The research is being conducted by the Behavioral and Neurodevelopmental Genetics lab, an interesting merger of different scientific fields.   We had our first session last week and Priya was a real trooper. Her job was to sit in her car seat and respond however she wanted to while I interacted with her.   Easy enough, but there was a 2 minute period where I had to look at her without smiling or talking to her.   This felt like an eternity to me, but she handled it ok.   It made for a different little outing for us, and it was fun to be on the other side of a research project.  We'll go back again when Priya turns one-year old for an extension of the study.  

Ready for her research study at Tulane

We've also been doing some environmental research at home.  After our lead pipe discovery, we've obviously been concerned about water quality.  We did a quick (and crude) water quality test using a test kit we ordered online.  Things checked out ok on a drinking water sample taken after the pipes were changed.  We did have a carbon filter in place, but its hard to know if that would have trapped any heavy metal contaminants.  Still, we have a little peace of mind moving forward.  Ram also sent out a few soil samples from our yard to see if we have any contaminants there.  LSU does this testing for a small fee.  It will be useful to have this information, especially as we start to think about planting fruit trees in our yard and letting the kids run around.  Living in a really old city with ancient infrastructure at the base of the Mississippi River definitely comes with a few environmental tradeoffs!  

Collecting a water sample at Clay-ground

Kiran's experimentation continues to focus on the physics of trains.   What happens when Thomas and Spencer collide head-on?  Why does Thomas fall off the line?  Why does Spencer go so fast downhill?  Its so fun to watch him figure these things out and keep setting his trains up for dramatic tumbles off the rails.  His research isn't funded by the NSF yet, but he's already learning that it comes at a cost -- batteries.  On our recent mother-son outing to Home Depot, he was quick to remind me that we needed more AA batteries!  

Obviously, I'm looking forward to putting my scientific mind to work again soon.  But as Kiran often reminds me, my most important job will always be raising him and his little sister!    

"You're not Dr. Mix... you're not a doctor!"  

"You're not a teacher, you're a mommy.  A mommy is a mommy."  

Loading up the cart with batteries