Growth, Literature, and more planning

Due to the 4^th of July, this week was slightly shorter. The phytoplankton seem to be growing quite well, appearing to have been entering the exponential growth stage during the early to mid portion of the week. However, this growth could have been affected by the three days of break over the weekend during which the culture was not swirled. This hypothesis will have to be confirmed by further monitoring this week. The flasks they are growing in appear quite green now and I am excited to see how they will do during the next week. Hopefully, they will have reached the end phase of growth and I can start the uptake portion of the experiment.

There was also more literature searches and reading done to enhance my understanding of the project. Next week, we have a literature review due, so I wanted to make sure I had a broad understanding of the topic as I am hoping to eventually develop this literature review into an introduction for my final paper. I found some papers that discussed the uptake of metformin in the seeds of certain agricultural plants, which was interesting as the drug was originally synthesized from Galega officinalis, a noxious weed/ invasive species in Oregon. While no studies have been conducted on the release of byproducts of this plant into the water system, the possibility of the plant releasing biguanides into the environment do exist.

Next week I will be continuing to write my literature review as well as starting to seriously think about my methodology for the photodegradation of metformin project. At the moment, it looks like there is a lot to accomplish in the next week and I am very excited.