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The Tenth and (almost) Final Week – Reflecting

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on August 13, 2010 - 2:31pm
If I have learned anything here, I’ve learned how to feed bacteria. In fact, I know the recipe for LB and lept media by heart. And I can murder and mutate them too. But really, I have learned a lot, and am still learning. Kati has taught me a ridiculous amount of biology and lab techniques that I never would have gotten had I not come here and I am so grateful that she was so patient with me. I’ve really enjoyed learning all of this new stuff and taking in the entire research experience.
 

The Ninth Week – From Murder to Mutation

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on August 9, 2010 - 1:11pm
At the beginning of the summer in my first blog, I attempted to explain my proposed project for this summer. The first part of that explanation was about testing the biological function of manganese oxidation, which translates to murdering a lot of bacteria and seeing if the ones coated in manganese oxides survive better. The second part I was unclear on, but I have spent most of this week working on that second project. If testing oxidation as protection translates to murdering bacteria, this new project translates to mutating bacteria. I have been trying to make a mu

The Eighth Week – Busy Bee

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on August 2, 2010 - 4:35pm
My internship is winding down, and I’m finding that sometimes I really dread coming to work. Now, that might sound like a terrible introduction to a blog entry written on the website of my employer, but it’s true, and I know everyone has felt that way before. It’s important to identify, accept, and cope with a negative attitude. My dread has stemmed from repeating what seem to be mindless tasks and spending much of my in between time waiting for bacteria to grow, get cold, oxidize, take up DNA, or a multitude of other things. I didn’t feel like

The Seventh Week – Solving Problems

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on July 27, 2010 - 9:33am

Throughout this internship I’ve felt very out of my element, as I’m sure I’ve made fairly clear throughout my blogs.  I’m very new to laboratory work, biology, microbiology, and especially genomics.  But I have still found some connections from what I’m doing here to my chosen career path in environmental engineering.  Science and engineering are not normally closely linked, but there are some main similarities that permeate both professions.  The one that I’ve experienced the most is problem-solving.

The Sixth Week – Remembering the Big picture

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on July 20, 2010 - 2:58pm
When we are doing our experiments, it’s easy to get sucked into the very minute details and forget the big picture. We are testing one type of environmental stress on a specific strain of Pseudomonas that is growing on a specific type of media under specific temperature conditions for a specific amount of time. And the amount of bacteria is so tiny; 100μL aliquots of liquid at a time. Such small amounts as well as the need to keep everything very sterile and test several seemingly small variables makes the lab work very tedious and time-consuming. But i

The Fifth Week – On Stupidity

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on July 13, 2010 - 10:12am
Everyone who does research is stupid, and we must accept this. We are all equally clueless about the problem being unraveled because it is all completely original information; never been looked about before. At the beginning of this internship we all received an article entitled “The Importance of Stupidity in scientific research” that really articulates this point well. (I’ve attached it to this blog entry too.)
 

The Fourth Week – The Importance of Communication and Collaboration

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on July 6, 2010 - 10:01pm
Science is not something to be done in isolation. Some people (even a past intern as Vanessa has mentioned) have said they want to become scientists so they don’t have to talk to people, but that is so far from the truth. When done in collaboration, science is much more efficient. Throughout this internship I am experiencing this first-hand.
 

The Third Week – The Challenges and Successes of Learning

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on June 27, 2010 - 3:46pm
Time has been going by so fast; I can’t believe how long I’ve already been here or how much I’ve learned. I suppose that’s what this entire internship is about: learning. And this week has been full of it.
 

The Second Week – Mass Murder of GB1

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on June 21, 2010 - 7:37am
Today is the last day of my first full work week here at CMOP and I have killed a lot of bacteria.
 

The First Week – an Introduction to the Working World

Submitted by Lacey Kloster on June 12, 2010 - 4:21pm

I say the first week, but really it was only my first two days.

My first day was Thursday.  I was nervous to begin because I have never had a "real" job other than babysitting. However, I was also excited to begin this new experience, especially since there would be no homework!  Even though that's not entirely true, I know the stress associated with this internship will be far different (and hopefully far less) than that with my first year of college.  So, this was my introduction to the working world.

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Views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CMOP or OHSU. All content posted here must be consistent with OHSU's Acceptable Use of Computing and Telecommunications Resources policy.