Week 2,

2 July 16

This week I read journals that dealt with the medical aspect of BMAA and how it triggers the onset of neurofibrillary tangles and amyloidal deposits of the brain. I also had a two-day training, Data and Donuts, which was really helpful in giving tips on how to represent data in the best way possible, along with a discussion of ethics in science. In the lab, I performed a nutrient introduction to the starved cells retrieved from different study sites. I then ran a  phycocyanin and chlorophyll-a  test in the flourometer to measure the differences in the fluorescent intensity. I studied the aspects of circular dichroism and ramachandran plots which will later be used to determine a spectral analysis and predict folding of a protein. I also examined cyanobacteria and other creature under the microscope from the samples that Stuart brought back from the field sites. I attempted to micropipette cells, but my skills were minimal.