I thought the next time I login on NN I will be told that due to failure of keeping a least frequency of update I have been rejected from the list of NN bloggers…

On the fourth day after the disaster, the traffic to the most destroyed location is still blocked (or blocked again by aftershocks). Due to the difficult geographic circumstances around the disaster area the rescue is rather challenging. We need technology to accelerate the progress.

I have been busy preparing my dissertation for MS and mute from blogging for quite long. The most annoying thing among many about the dissertation is the fact that my data are mostly meaningless. I feel like confessing when trying to explain the poor data.

Eh…maybe not that bad. There is still something interesting in it. In one part I tried some theory on my data – P. Flory’s melting point depression method to determine miscibility between two polymer (J. Chem. Phys. 1949, 17, 223). The equation of the method appears on every textbook of polymer physics, but reading the equation in a book is one thing, using it is another when textbooks is far from enough. I have to resort to the original papers to make very clear every presumption of the equation and ensure carefully my experimental condition fits the model of the equation properly. In fact Flory’s made a bundle of extensions of his equation, and finally it is R. Scott (J. Chem. Phys. 1949, 17, 279) who derived a newer equation based on Flory’s that fit my situation best, and N. Nishi (Macromolecules 1975, 8, 909) provided an actual example how to apply the equation on experimental data. Thanks Flory! Thanks Scott! Thanks Nishi! This part took me a month. During this process all the papers I read is older than me, and I have learned much more than can be shown on the dissertation.

I still have to work hard on the rest part of the dissertation. I look forwards to the time when I have finish all the MS affairs and continue my PhD life in the next two months, when I can again enjoy the fun of reading irrelevant papers and doodle on NN about them.