Olives and Nanotechnology

So its been a absolutely crazy last two weeks. Tomorrow starts the kickoff to the big international conference on Nanotechnology and Commercial Applications that is being hosted here in Jordan. There is a total of about 200 experts from the field coming from all over the world. We have been working like crazy to try and get the results of my current research finalized so that I can publish it. Normally that wouldn't be an extremely difficult thing, however, I just started getting desired results from the experiment about 3 weeks ago. Long story short, it is very difficult to prove and finalize the production of metallic particles that are 50 nanometers big, that is 2000x smaller than the human hair, or about 20 times larger than the DNA double helix (for you biology nuts, or nurses :) Nevertheless, somehow I managed to get my research project on the schedule (probably cause the professor I work for is one of the organizers). I wish I could show you some pictures of the work, but the research is still under international IP rights...In addition I've been doing some extra work on the organizational side of things (Arabs need all the help they can get). This is the main reason I came back to the University this semester. After this conference things will slow down significantly for me, to the dissatisfaction of my professors.
On a somewhat disconnected topic I've been using my mp3 player alot while working in the lab, and I am very happy with it, especially the 25 hr battery life. Thanks to Sam Hammet for the recommendation.

Anyway, back the world of the macroscopic. Last Friday I spent the majority of the day preparing and bottling olives. I made four different recipes. They are mostly similar, but vary in salt concentration and some of the extra ingredients (like putting honey in one). The olives I bottled had been first soaked in water for one week, and as it turns out they will start to cure in ordinary water, because when I opened the bottle the lid shot off and hit the ceiling...pretty cool. After I rinsed them one more time I started "bruising" the olives with the hatchet or cutting them with the knife. This allows the curing brine to enter the olives. After the olives were bruised I put them in the bottles, using a different recipe for each bottle.

I also made an attempt using the Chemical method, of soaking olives in Sodium Hydroxide (20mL NaOH : 1 L Water). I soaked the olives in the NaOH solution for 12 hours, then in water for 12 hours. I repeated this process two more times. After the second time the olives were pretty much devoid of any sour taste. After the third time they pretty much devoid of any taste at all, except a slight hint of soap flavor. So I cut them open and let them soak for another 24 hours to remove the remaining Lye. Afterwards I bottled them in a special brine. Supposedly, after they have been Lye-cured you can put them in the brine and they will take on the flavor of whatever is in the brine after about 3 days. We'll see what happens .
I also dry cured some black (ripe) olives, using a dry salt recipe. I simply cut the olives, put them in a large plastic bowl and smothered them in salt. I was told that they will be ready in about 4,5 days.
Overall I bottled about 7 liters of olives, and still have some left over (like another gallon). I think I'll probably end up throwing them away. If I could send olives over seas I would...

OK, I'm tired. I'll try to post after the conference.
Thanks for the comments everyone.