I once heard that your brain is like an old sweater, once it has been stretched it will never go back to its original shape, and I definitely agree! I have thought about more diverse areas of research and the interdisciplinary possibilities between them over the course of this summer than in my entire life. Being exposed to so many different works by my peers from oceanography to MEMS to synthetic biology, I have stretched my brain to grasp, understand, and critically think about problems that I never imagined existed or could be solved. Not only have I stretched my sweater of knowledge in academia, I have done the same with extracurricular activities… As you can see in the picture I am skydiving from 10,000 feet above the ground and actually enjoying it. I had never even fathomed the concept of skydiving before this summer, much less participating in it. So after being exposed to the possibility of skydiving by one of my MSRP students,  last Saturday I found myself jumping out of a plane over Cape Cod. Now that I have skydived I have stretched my sweater to the point that no extreme sport is really that extreme after 10,000 feet of free fall! So I said all that to say, stretch those old sweaters we call brains! I figure I came to MIT to learn how to think more critically, more innovatively, and more interdisciplinary, and the only way I can accomplish this goal is to continue to challenge myself to think about those things deemed unimaginable. (And by the way, its pretty fun once you get over the fear of flying) Until next time..