January 7th, 2014
   Today marked the first day of my research interim. I began my day learning how to mix sucrose solutions. Alex showed me how to measure the sucrose on the scale, add it to the specified amount of DI water and mix it on the stir plate. Today’s solution had a concentration of.2 moles of sucrose. We added 68.46g of sucrose in one liter of water. We proceeded to divide the solution among the water bottles and attach rubber bands to ensure that the tops stayed in place.
   Afterward, we learned how to handle the rats and agitate their cannuli. Although there are multiple ways to handle the rats, I preferred to use my index finger and thumb to hold the rat still. Inserting the dummy into the cannula proved to be a challenging task for multiple reasons. For one, the hole of the cannula is so small! Additionally, I was worried about bending the dummy, especially as the rat writhed around. I am excited to report that I was able to remove and replace the dummy on two rats! We weighed all of the rats, including those who had not undergone surgery. Based on their weight, Dr. Pittman selected the heaviest rats without cannulas. Today, he performed surgeries on the rats and I was able to watch!
   After we handled the rats, we went into the dark room and weighed the eight water bottles. We accidentally recorded water bottle number 4 as number 1, so we had to make a special note for future reference. We began testing and returned after an hour had elapsed to weigh the water bottles again.