Post date: Jul 6, 2013 7:09:57 PM
Currently I am helping Dr. Sam Ying as an intern. Last year she went to China and collected many dirt samples, from both the surface and 10 cm under. She collected these samples from the ground nearby a power plant that was burning coal and expelling fly ash. After bringing the samples back last year, I was there to help her dry and crush the dirt to the smallest pieces possible; after it was crushed it looked like sand.
Now that she has the samples prepared and ran them, she now knows what percent of each element are in the samples, but she is running those more to try to get more specific results. And so right now I am working on a computer, compiling old information about power plant coal and fly ash so that she can use the information to compare it to the results she gets from the samples.