Week Nine

Hello,
This week we looked at our slides through the microscope. We found similar data as our last gram staining test. They appeared red in color, indicating that they're gram negative bacteria. Their shape was also rounded. Some appeared to be short rods, while others were more circular. The last time we gram stained it took me a moment to really identify what I was looking at. But Matt and Josh helped us better understand that some may be in a skewed position. Sort of like looking at a pencil from the eraser end, you miss all the other details of its shape. Because of the morphology we noted, we went with bacilli.
The image below is of one of the colonies. First thing you will note is the red color and we had to take a closer look for the shape.
Hopefully more test can help us
better identify the bacteria.

Week Eight

Hello.
Hopefully everyone had a wonderful spring break. This week we worked on gram staining the second set of plastic samples. These are the samples that were collected in February. We're doing this in order to gather sufficient data to identify the bacteria living on the plastics. With so much gram staining, I think it's safe to say that I'm experienced by now.
Thankfully, today I finished staining the last two plates and we can move on to looking at the slides under the microscope. I'm kinda glad this week is over, I'm looking forward to performing other test to identify our bacteria. (other than gram staining, ofcourse :P)

Gram stain slide for Plastic #6 (Polystyrene), plate 2, plastic piece 4.

Week Six

Was it just me or did this week go by very slowly? haha.
The good thing is, we've moved forward onto testing the second set of plastics. Last month, 5 pieces of each type of the six plastics were obtained and placed on agar plates. This week's first objective was to observe and describe the bacterial colonies that were growing on those plates. The morphological characteristics we looked for were form, elevation and margin. This may help us better identify the bacteria growing on the plastics.
The second objective we were able to get started on, is gram staining. This would be our second round of gram staining. (We're probably going to be experts after all this.)
Lastly, I wanted to mention that one of my team members sampled the canal water, to gain an understanding of what may be floating in that environment. Growth was found in both, a TSA plate and a PIA plate. I'm hoping we can find out more in the upcoming weeks.

PIA plate with visible bacterial growth from sampled canal water.