Week 2

Week 2:
This week on Monday I finished adding cruise sample water to the rest of my plates, as well as a couple of additional ones Suzanna had handy. We also checked out the plates I had done on Friday. Not many colonies growing yet. In addition, I inoculated my liquid media with sample water using 48 well plates. Now the waiting begins. We will get all kinds of colonies growing on our plates, but we only want the manganese oxidizers. These microbes form light brown colonies and can take a few weeks to form. If we do get the colonies we want, we’ll streak them out and try to cultivate them individually.

On Tues we had a lab safety class to attend and lab meeting. I spent most of Tues, Wed and Thurs reading primary literature about manganese oxidation in the Columbia and beginning to write my practice grant proposal and preparing slides for our Friday presentation.

On Friday there was a potential hire here for one of the labs, and we went to her presentation on symbiosis between squid and bioluminescent bacteria. We had a noon speaker at lunch and the interns met after lunch to present what we’ve been doing so far, and to show our power point slide. Each week we are supposed to make one slide for our final presentation which will take place in our last week. We present our slide and get feedback from the group.

I feel more like I belong in the lab now. On Thurs a few of us went to a Portland Timbers game (soccer). It was great fun. We “sat” with “the Timbers Army”, a group of absolutely die-hard fans and ended up standing through the whole game. It was a tie.
P.S. The picture is from the collection cruise.

Monday: Finish inoculating plates and inoculate liquid media as well.

Tuesday: Attend Lab Safety class, attend lab meeting, begin reading primary literature and doing research to begin writing grant proposal.

Wednesday: Primary papers and research.

Thursday: Make slides for power point presentation on Friday, begin writing our practice grant proposal, continued reading and research.

Friday: Attended presentation on squid/bioluminescent bacteria symbiosis, attended lunch time presenter, meeting with other interns and mentors to present what we’ve been doing and show our first power point slide. Continue writing grant proposal.