Goodbye, Sky.

Remembering Sky

Sometimes I can't hold back the tears. Now (around midnight on Tuesday night, 25-Sep-07) is one of those times.

I worked with Sky this summer at Caltech. He taught me how to grow liters and liters of purple stuff, which is harder than you'd think.

The first time I saw Sky was when I was a frosh in Ge11a. The grad students from Ge101 and the undergrads from 11a all went on the same field trip to Bishop and the surrounding areas. I don't think I talked to Sky on that trip, but I was intrigued by him. Sky is one of those people fascinated me for no particular reason. There are always a handful of people like that in my life; people who have some inexplicable quality that I can't ignore. Once I notice a person like that, two things can happen. The first (and most probable) doesn't involve getting to know said person, but instead making up a pseudo-persona based on things I notice about the person from the corner of my eye in the lunch line. Sky was this type of person for about two years. It wasn't until a few months ago that he became the second type of person: the real person, not my judgement-based character.

I was bummed out when Alex told me we wouldn't be able to go to Yellowstone for my research project. Instead, he gave me a few other project ideas, one of which involved working with Sky. I think it was this prospect that sold me on the particular project; I was going to work with Sky. THE Sky from the 11a trip. The one with the curly ginger hair and goofy grin. Sweet.

I had to wait for Sky to get back from Western Australia to meet him. Neither I nor Alex knew when he would be getting back. The days past, and the anticipation grew. When I finally met Sky to discuss my project with him and Alex, it wasn't the larger than life moment I always envision when finally meeting a Type1 person (it never is). A Type1 person is inevitably a normal person (but usually a pretty cool one). Sky was no exception (and he was pretty darn cool).

The Type2 Sky was not hugely different from the Type1 Sky. He was a little shorter than I remembered. He was a bit more soft spoken, and a bit more cynical. His music was spot on to what I'd imagined (and quite often very bizarre). He worked harder than I imagined, and always wore retro adidas. He was usually ten minutes late to meetings, but he got to lab before I did, took shorter lunch brakes, and stayed later. His paper, which I read several times (usually with wikipedia open so I could look up the big words), seemed groundbreaking. In a nutshell, cyanobacteria aren't the only critters that produce methylhopanes. Maybe methylhopanes aren't as nifty biomarkers as everyone thought they were. Bummer.

Sky taught me the in's and out's of working in the lab. I guess rule number one is sterility is of utmost importance. One contaminated step can make weeks of work useless. Also, don't put squirt bottles full of alcohol in vacuum chambers. Also, don't leave the mercury light bulbs on for too long. Also, don't leave the hydrogen tank on for too long. Also, don't put the bunsen burner under a shelf (while it's lit!). Also, don't flame a flask which has recently been solvent washed with hexane. As you can see, the fact that N. Mudd was not burnt to the ground or blown to bits while I was there is a testament to how great a teacher Sky was.

When I asked Sky to look over my SURF presentation and give me feedback, he said I needed more information about fatty acid biosynthesis. Instead of learning about fatty acid biosynthesis, I decided to be cheeky. I looked it up on wiki and pasted a screenshot into my presentation. (No one thought it was as funny as I did. At least I crack myself up sometimes.) I hope Sky knew how much I appreciated his help and enjoyed being around him this summer. Did I tell him? I can't remember. I hope so. Maybe not in so many words, but I hope he knew.

The last contact I had with Sky was an email I sent to him. I asked him if he could return my overdue library books to the library. He said sure, no problem. The books never made it back to the library.

I just realized, it was a month ago today that Sky died.