Well it’s already half way through second week, meaning we have exactly 2 weeks left in the block now!\u00a0 Only 2 weeks till winter break, a long much-needed break from school. I’m really looking forward to it after taking two lab classes in a row. Lab classes really have a way of wearing you out.<\/p>\n
We had our first test on Monday this week.\u00a0 It wasn’t too bad, but the first test of every block for me at least is usually a learning experience.\u00a0 It gives me a chance to get to know how I can change my studying for the next test and how the tests are generally structured.\u00a0 We still haven’t gotten the results back yet, but I’m sure we will soon. Having tests on Mondays always somehow make the rest of the week go by a lot faster.<\/p>\n
Lecture in class is always extremely interesting and without fail, some piece of technology doesn’t work correctly, but Phoebe continues through lecture occasionally attempting to correct the failure. Oh the perils of technology.\u00a0 It seems like everyone I know has had some sort of trouble with some piece of technology this past week. It’s crazy.<\/p>\n
This week we have discussed\u00a0how bacteria make the products that are required\u00a0to build specific structures.\u00a0 It is amazing how much it differs from how humans make the products necessary for structure and survival.\u00a0 Most of what we know about how bacteria do this is still not completely understood.\u00a0 What I am learning is that there is still a lot of research that needs to be\u00a0done on bacteria to figure out how they work.\u00a0 This is intriguing because it means that there must be a lot of job openings out there in this field that could benefit us college students as we graduate in the upcoming years.<\/p>\n
We have done a variety of labs this week continuing\u00a0the research we started last week on our ADP1 mutants.\u00a0 On Monday we prepared\u00a0our heat and cold stress test.\u00a0 This test is used\u00a0to see if the mutants are able to grow under different temperatures.\u00a0 It was a pretty\u00a0interesting test, because we obtained growth at 20 degrees celsius which I wasn’t expecting\u00a0, but after realizing that 20 degrees celsius is 68 degrees farenheit, I soon realized it wasn’t that cold.\u00a0 It makes sense that they would be able to grow at about that temperature.<\/p>\n
Tuesday we set up our UV light sensitivity test to determine\u00a0what dose\u00a0of UV light would kill the bacteria the best.\u00a0 Upon examining our results today, we realized that not even the highest dose significantly\u00a0killed the bacteria. I thought that was pretty amazing because it was suppose to\u00a0damage their DNA and kill them at a high dose.\u00a0 It sounds pretty mean to be killing the bacteria, but we can always get more to grow because the grow so quickly.\u00a0 One of the graph’s we made it called a Kill Curve and if anyone were to just hear us discussing a Kill Curve outside of class they might be a little concerned.\u00a0 My lab partner and I laugh about it all the time.<\/p>\n
Today we did our second Twitching\u00a0Motility test and are still waiting\u00a0on results for that test.\u00a0 Tomorrow we will be performing\u00a0our second Growth Curve trial and hopefully will get some similar results to our first test. I also hope that it won’t take nearly as long as the first trial.\u00a0 Mainly because\u00a0I have an IM Basketball game tomorrow night. It’s kind of a\u00a0big deal because we have to win otherwise we are out of the tournament.\u00a0 So I need to be\u00a0there.\u00a0 I have a feeling though that this trial will go faster due to some adjustments made by Phoebe.<\/p>\n
Only\u00a0 two more days till the weekend and only one more day of lab for the week!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well it’s already half way through second week, meaning we have exactly 2 weeks left in the block now!\u00a0 Only 2 weeks till winter break, a long much-needed break from school. I’m really looking forward to it after taking two lab classes in a row. Lab classes really have a way of wearing you out. … <\/p>\n