Week 10: Almost there…Only 1 week left

Since we are so close to finishing I started working on my poster at the beginning of the week. This allowed me the time I needed to complete my poster up to the point I was currently at with my data. I even added color to the Sigmaplot graph to make it more appealing on the poster, since normal publication graphs are displayed in black and white. I also did whatever maintenance was needed around the lab during the week.

To continue from last week’s blog, we still needed to discover what the issue was with the pHstat. So on the first day I started a biotic set point run without GEORGE being turned on, which means no pH manipulation occurred throughout the 24 hours. This was to see if the problem was a programing or mechanical issue. This run completed the next day and we still discovered some problems within the pH data, so I ran the pHstat once again with no pH manipulation. After this run completed a similar problem presented itself within the data. We believed the problem might be caused by the pH meter instead of the system itself. It might have been due to biofouling that can occur when a pH meter is submerged within a culture for an extended period of time, so we switched the pH meter and I ran the 24 hour test for the third time. After even this run the problem could still not be discovered. This problem would need to be fixed at a later date by Rachel. It is interesting that it did not start appearing until at the very end of all of the other experiments. So instead I focused upon gathering data for pH drift of the sensor from the pH stat the rest of the week. Also with Rachel’s help I began preparations for the sparging experiment that we were beginning on my final week. It was an interesting week and hopefully I will have everything completed before I leave.