Week 3: Getting Started

Top: Shredded plastics in containers.
Bottom: Specimen cups with 20 g of sediment. 

      This semester I am going to be developing a protocol for the extraction of microplastics. I will use a protocol established by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Debris program as a guide by testing its efficiency for collecting microplastics. I am going to use 7 different types of plastics (.5 g each) and place each sample in a specimen container along with 20 grams of sediment and 3Ml of Distilled water. I will then filter the plastics out by using a series of techniques as well as a series of solutions (sodium chloride, potassium Carbonate, and Distilled H2O) to determine the overall extraction percentage of each plastic. I have set up 18 specimen containers with 20 g of sediment and will hopefully finish testing all 30 samples by the end of this month. 

Week 2: Spores at Last!

Bacillus Subtilis; spores 

MSA plate: acid productiom

This week I finished identifying my unknown bacteria. Let me just say this. I NEVER want to do another endospore stain ever again. I performed about 4 or 5 endospore stains on my unknown bacteria this week in hopes of finding spores. The first time I attempted to perform the staining, my bacterial smear fell into a beaker containing boiling water. So, yikes. I performed my second staining improperly. On the third trail, I stained my bacterial smear perfectly, BUT there was no indication of spores. I performed it once again, but there were no spores. After consulting Josh, he explained that the bacteria on my TSA plate might not be stressed enough to form spores. So, I took my bacterial broth that had been in the fridge for a while now and used it in place of the bacteria in the TSA plate. And VOILA! Spores spores spores! I then used a fermentation broth and combined it with my bacteria to spread on an MSA plate, I left in the incubator for a day and waited for my results. The plate displayed yellow streaks, which meant that my bacteria had produced acid. My unknown bacteria is Bacillus shaped,  gram-positive, spore positive, and was able to fermentate and produce acid. With this information, I was able to indicate that my bacteria is Bacillus Subtilis.

Spring: Week 1

Magnified gram positive Bacillus.

 Hello everyone! I am currently working on identifying an unknown bacteria. During the last week of the fall semester I wrote notes on colony morphology (shape of individual cells) and completed my gram staining. The results displayed a dark red (almost pink) bacterial colony, the rim of the sample was dark purple. After consulting Josh, it was decided that the sample was a purple gram stain, meaning it was gram positive. After viewing the cells under a microscope I was able to determine that the morphology of the cell was bacillus. This week, I had to smear my plates again and collect another sample because I had left my old samples in the incubator and they had dried out. I will begin the endospore test this week.

WEEK 3: BIOSPHERE 2 TRIP

 Biosphere 2 researchers  (1991)

       On Saturday, I had the opportunity to visit Biosphere 2 in Oracle, Arizona with the STEM program. Biosphere 2 is a system composed of artificial and manipulated ecosystems, the purpose of Biosphere 2 was to alter the conditions of artificial ecosystems to obtain viable information about Earth and its systems. Biosphere 2 began as a closed experiment in 1991 and again in 1993. It consists of five biome areas: a rainforest, an ocean with coral reef, mangrove wetlands, a fog desert, and a savannah grassland. Before attending Biosphere 2, I watched a few short informational videos about the experiments and the biosphere itself. During the first experiment (1991), it was reported that oxygen began depleting causing animals and plants to die off. I asked our guide about this and she said that animals and plants did not die off but that there was a low oxygen levels near the end of the experiment, I’ll have to look into that more.  One thing I was really excited for was seeing the lung! The engineering is completely unfathomable. It weighs 20 tons and is held up by atmospheric pressure. I really wanted to see it function but unfortunately, we were not able. Regardless, I enjoyed visiting Biosphere 2; it was a great experience!

Week 2: Getting Started

      Hello everyone! So as I mentioned in my last blog post I have been here for almost two weeks now. Today Josh brought to my attention that I had to complete weekly blog posts, which, I completely had no idea about (Yikes! right?). So, many, if not all of you may have noticed that I posted these a day after the deadline, which I apologize for. Throughout these two weeks I have completed a safety training course by watching videos and reading A LOT of modules. I have completed my first nine hours, yay! and am looking forward to what comes after this. I have established my daily hours here in the lab and have gotten accustomed to what it is I need to do around here during my hours. I have spoken to and befriended many of the other S-STEM scholars, they have told me about their research projects and have helped me set up my blog, which was incredibly nice of them! Now that I am done with all the modules and safety videos I anticipate beginning my assigned research in the spring semester.

Welcome to the program!

Welcome to the program!  This blog will be yours to post in from now on.