09 Aug Akira Smith, Bob Miller UCSB Lab, Week 6

Hey everyone!

This is my last and final blog, and I genuinely can’t believe how quickly these weeks have gone by! I went on quite a few adventures this week, and it ended up being the perfect way to wrap up my Pinternship.

Me and Kaitlyn started off our week in the wood workshop, where we had to flatten our rock samples even more as we began working on a different type of test. We used power tools to sharpen and smooth them down as much as possible, but it proved to be pretty difficult since most of the rocks were either incredibly hard or covered in tar. The tar also gave off possibly the worst smell ever, but not worse than dead clam guts.

me and kaitlyn with our heavy duty equipment

We wanted to get started on hardness testing, which essentially measures a material’s resistance to surface deformation by pressing an indenter (which is a specialized tip) into it with a large amount of force. We started testing the hardness of our rock samples in the materials testing lab, but then realized something pretty important: we needed to compare the hardness of the rocks to the hardness of the clams themselves (duh).

So, we shifted our focus and came up with a game plan for testing clam hardness. We decided to divide the clam into four sections, which we labeled A through D, focusing on areas that we thought would have the most distinct differences in hardness. Although we looked at all four sections, we mainly focused on Part B, the teeth, because those are the structures actually responsible for grinding and burrowing into the rock. Ultimately, we wanted to see whether the hardness of the clam’s teeth had any relationship with the hardness of the rock they burrow into.

We also had to create some new empty clam shells for testing, which meant using previously frozen clams from dates as far back as 2022 and essentially digging the frozen clam out of its shell. We had to do this carefully because we couldn’t cross contaminate the inside of the clam with material from the shell. It was pretty gross.

Outside of the lab, I spent the week slowly moving out of my apartment and trying to soak up as much of the Santa Barbara sun as possible. This week, Santa Barbara hosted La Fiesta, a festival celebrating Spanish, Mexican, and Native American heritage. It was so cool to walk around the street market they had set up along the main street. In a way, it reminded me a lot of home. I also got to watch women perform traditional dances in these absolutely gorgeous dresses, which was such a fun experience. 

Me and Vito also took a little detour down to LA on the train to meet up with some friends and go to a concert. The stadium was really cool, although, strangely enough, I think I still prefer Red Rocks.

It’s definitely bittersweet to be ending my internship and leaving Santa Barbara. I’m sad to leave, but I’m also incredibly grateful for the opportunity I was given and for getting to spend my summer learning, researching, exploring, and soaking up the sun.

touring ucla!

A huge thank you to everyone at the lab, Billy, Kaitlyn, Bob, Inez, and Frankie, and to the entire Pinhead team, especially Sarah, Trang, Maggie, and Jessica back home, for making all of this possible. I’m so grateful for everyone who helped make this summer such an unforgettable experience!