Week 4

This week I continued monitoring the growth of our new bacteria. It hasn't grown on any of the first agar plates that we used. It's really disconcerting. It does seem to be growing in the broth media, so it could be that we just made the plates before giving the bacteria long enough to grow in the broth. We made some more plates including a blood agar plate this time.
We did the DNA purification for PCR. It was fascinating to see the DNA strands when re-suspending them in alcohol. They looked exactly how I had imagined, like a little ball of tangled string. I'm excited for the qPCR.
I applied for some scholarships for the spring. I got good feedback at a scholarship workshop that was held in the college library, but we'll see. I wish the people who decide would give you some feedback after you submit.