Week Two

I've familiarized myself even more with the lab. I like how organized it's been. Especially where I've been working, since I can find stuff more easily now. But fair warning, this post will be long. Since I'm still getting the swing of things, I want to share what I've learned so far. And if anyone has any insight or helpful tips, I would really appreciate if you shared. I love learning new things and seeing things from a different perspective, so let me know.

This week, we were gram staining the bacterial cultures that was found growing on the plastic pieces. Since I'm jumping into this project mid research, I'm still gathering as much information as I can. I'm thankful for my partners Luisa and Cathy, they've been so patient with me, ready to answer any of my questions and quick to fill me in on the project. The purpose of our research is to see if bacteria commonly found in canal water can deteriorate plastic. They had assembled a fish tank that has several plastic pieces submerged into canal water. Their intent was to create a similar aquatic environment as a canal. With the sand and the water, they were able to achieve this. A few weeks after winter break, they found visible growth in the water tank. Afterwards, they obtained plastic samples, labeled, then weighed and placed them in an agar plate. This is where I'm currently at in the project. So now we are challenged with the question of which microbes are growing on the plastic pieces. Many microbes can be found in canal water and it's important that we deduce which is currently thriving on the plastic. We will have to go through a series of procedures to rule out and determine which microbe is growing. We are currently working on gram staining our cultures. 

Next we'll look at them in a microscope to determine if they are gram negative or gram positive. 

Another important question is, has there been any deterioration on the plastic pieces? It's important to note that it's currently in a controlled environment, so hopefully that can help with future questions we may stumble upon later. But I think finding the best way to determine if there is any break down in the plastic is going to be our next challenge.