Hello everybody! I can’t believe it’s already been another week.
This week in the lab, I spent a lot of time learning how different branches of stem can work in tandem to better an experiment.
On Monday, I looked over a graph I had made last week of a previous experiment’s microbial growth over time. Using these data, me and my mentor Steve tried to find a mathematical expression that would more or less represent the microbial growth. We use an application called KaliedaGraph, and manipulated a logarithmic expression so that it would reflect the growth of different plates. The data we used was from the Svalbard microcosm experiment, which was very similar to the experiment we are conducting right now on Antarctic cryoconite sediments. After a bit of trial and error, we found decent success with a few of the treatment groups.
On Tuesday, I was honored to attend the PhD presentation of Dr. Adam Solon, one of the leading scientists in my lab. He discussed studies he has done in the Taylor Valley of Antarctica, and how different geographical areas respond to nutrient addition. I was excited to notice that I could connect his presentation to the current experiment. Congrats to Adam!!
Wednesday is “count day”, which means members of the lab count the microbial growths in designated spots on each sample plate. This is a long and tedious process, which I hope to better explain next week(when I will learn how to count myself).
On Thursday, the lab was finishing up some counts, so I decided to spend a little bit of time reading from the microbiology textbook that Steve recommended a few weeks ago. The day ended with the watering of the samples. They seem to be losing water at a more steady rate at this point, which is a great sign!
On Friday, there wasn’t much to do regarding the samples, but me and Emily input some Qubit data from another experiment.
In my free time, I have been hiking, running, and dancing as usual. I witnessed a wild hail storm and some blistering heat. Also, I spent the weekend traveling to Steamboat Springs, where I watched my sisters performance and picked her up from a camp.
Thanks for following along!
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