Long Overdue

Two weeks after spring break and I can still feel the lingering effects of not coming to school for a whole week. Now I must focus on my new project. I was able to submit my new abstract to the Estrella Mountain conference in April. Since it is bad etiquette to submit the same abstract to different conferences I had to tweak my previous abstract a bit. I will also redesign my poster since I won't be able to keep the same methods and conclusion. I am excited about going to this upcoming conference specially since the last one was so fun.

There will be one major difference with my project, I will be testing different recipes that will increase the efficacy of Agrobacteria and Rhizobium growth. Matt came up with a few ingredients that would make a good media for Agrobacteria. Inspired by Macconkey media, Matt gave me a list of materials that I will combine to make better media; YMA (yeast manitol agar), crystal violet, bile salts and penicillin. I will make 4 litters of media and test each plate that comes out of those four litters to see which combination is more beneficial to my project. Needless to say I will be pouring a lot of media. This time around I will be using gloves and possibly a mouth guard when handling penicillin, seeing as how I am quite allergic to it.

Sadly I cannot start my new project yet because the YMA that was ordered, about two weeks ago, has not arrived at the lab. Matt had to reorder the media from a different company because the first one "couldn't find it" even though their website said it was being processed. I'm not even mad because I have been using my time to help around the lab. From making media and pouring it into plates, to washing dishes (which I find surprisingly enjoyable; it's easy, simple and kind of relaxing, specially when I get to sing and hum while I do it). I've also tried to help anyone that needed help with their projects even if it was just labeling things.

Funny story about the time I washed equipment at the lab. As I was scrubbing some trays, that previously held hearts, a blast of water pushed the faucet straight out of the sink. Luckily I had and apron on so I was not completely soaked; I hurried to screw the faucet back on. It turns out that every time the faucet is moved right or counterclockwise, it unscrews itself a little. The faucet was at its loosest point when I was there; I'm glad it was me and not someone else because that caused me to laugh for quite a bit.