No more course conflicts!

My schedule is finally figured out! No more course conflicts!

Topics Class

I only had one class on Monday, the chemistry topics course. The first lecture was a part of the module  on supramolecular and structural inorganic chemistry. We started going over x-ray crystallography, which included things about the unit cell, crystal systems and lattices, space groups, Miller indices, and Bragg's law.

X-ray crystallography is a very useful and powerful tool because it can provide information about the structure of molecules. The x-rays directed at the crystal of interest are scattered; the intensity and position of these scattered x-rays provide information about the atoms in the crystals. The application of symmetry operations to points in the crystal lattice result in space groups. Discussion of the space groups in class reminded me greatly of group theory and point groups. The names of the symmetry operations for space groups are slightly different, but a bit more entertaining (eg. glide planes and screw axes).

I also really enjoyed the second lecture today because it went over very practically the way you take and interpret data. There are no tutorials (recitations) this week, but I'm interested in what we will go over at the first tutorial on Monday. Also this topic is taught by Professor Abrahams (who I want to work for)!

On a separate note, I attended a biology lecture on t-cells and had almost no idea what the lecturer was talking about. I'm really happy I'm a chemist.

Chemical Research Project

I don't have any news on this because my preference form technically isn't due until next week. I think it's a little strange that we have to wait so long to pick an advisor and a project, but I suppose it's a good chance to figure out what you really want to do. There's a social with all of the students and professors next Tuesday, so I'm looking forward to talking with everyone, even professors I'm not planning on working with. I know who I want to work with, but I'll keep the form just in case I change my mind.

Australia Now

This class is mostly for international students and covers a lot of different issues in contemporary Australia including sports, gender, crime, politics, etc. Each week we go over a different topic. The course sounds really interesting and the first lecture was good. It was a little strange that the professor seemed to be reading her lecture word for word via some kind of transcript?...but none the less it was a good  lecture. I have my first tutorial tomorrow!

Anthropology: Myth, Ritual, and Performance

I was choosing between this class and another anthropology class called Ethnic Nationalism. While I liked the other class, I don't think I had enough background knowledge to successfully contribute to a discussion. I decided that the Myth, Ritual, and Performance class was a better fit and so I finally have my schedule figured out!

This class seems really interesting because it will go into religion in great detail. Something interesting our professor said was to forget whatever preconceived notions we had about religion (eg. a certain practice being "backward" or outdated or "not real"). Instead, we are supposed to think about how the religions/myths/rituals work in the societies that created them.

Overall I'm happy with my class choices and am looking forward to a great semester!

Steph