This is the fourth to last journal entry that I will be writing logging the events concerning a small group of biology and math students grouped together in a college classroom for five weeks of the summer. A group that could have very well entered into...THE TWILIGHT ZONE!

Last Friday, we went to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Attending were all of us, minus Katie, and the distinguished individuals Dr. Boland, Dr. Joplin, and Dr. Miller. Lev Yurievich was not in attendance.  Our dear friend Andrew had a little bit of trouble getting into the laboratory as he had accidentally left his identification in his dorm. Once we got into the facility, we went to the visitor's center and got radiation pamphlets and name badges. We proceded to the graphite reactor, which was the first one in existance, created at the time of the Manhattan Project. We then went to the environmental science area where we learned about inbreeding mice to make sure that all of their genes are as close to the same as possible.  A visit to the Oak Ridge cafeteria followed. After that, an Ed Uberbacher informed us of the various options available in computational biology. We learned that computer programming skills are a very important part of it. Their own supercomputer took 3 days to model the behavior of a million atoms in a certain situation. After his talk, we visited the huge computer that has some 10,000 processors. Apparently, it uses the same amount of electricity as a small city.  They said that it required constant repairs, and that it was able to bypass any dead parts.  I don't really understand how it all works together, but it was pretty impressive. After that, we went to a place where they did experiments with aquatic life.  After that, we headed home.