Happy Thanksgiving, unhappy student

Mood Face: (-_-)

Yes, I know, it is the holidays and there should be joy and cheer, but school seems set on killing it all. Damned calculus. I cannot tell you how much I want the next exam to come. Optimization can go to hell.

But that is irrelevant. What is is the fact that I haven't posted a blog in ages. For this I apologize, and acknowledge that I should have done it much sooner. However,since now there are many things afoot, and our plan is coming along very nicely, there should be some good filling for future posts.

Since there has been such a big gap in the blog....I should get you all up to date on the plan we drew up for ourselves.

Alright.....so....as with so many things in science, we are going to start with a bit of no-duh logic. Bacteria utilize organic carbon in order to produce energy and to build itself towards replication. Bacteria in a stressed environment use more carbon as energy (similar to us) and release more CO2; growth of the bacteria is also slowed, leading to a smaller amount of organic carbon locked inside the microbes. Conversely, bacteria in a stable environment can use more of the carbon for replication because it doesn't need as much energy to survive, and microbial carbon levels increase while emitted CO2 decreases.

1. Soil samples were taken of 3 habitat types, with 3 reaches of each and 4 sites in each. This produces 36 samples to work with. (Thanks, Pat Shaffroth)

2. Biolog analysis of functional diversity using ecoplates and GN plates. (....cancelled if I remember right)

3. pH analysis (later)

4. Carbon anaylsis
a. Organic carbon (current step) Free organic carbon from soil microorganisms via chloroform. This, along with the other organic carbon in the soil (decaying matter, etc) will be measured via the Walkley-Black Method (H2SO4 + KCr2O7 reaction, result is found through measuring the intensity of the orange or greeness of the resulting mess).

Then, repeat the process with a non-chloroformed sample of the same site and subtract (x+y)-x=y, right?

b. Basal Respiration (next...) Get a fully thawed soil sample, ram 50 g into a tube, seal the ends, and stick it in the machine....repeat 36 times. Then compare the g CO2/hr to the amount of organic carbon.

5. DNA Analysis
Here's where the majority of the work is probably going to lie. Looking back at the notes that Dr. Eaton provided us, I suddenly find myself unable to understand exactly what is going on. Buuut, I do know that this step has to do with identifying certain species of bacteria themselves in the soil, and cloning the DNA that makes them unique to be added to the national clone library.

6. All of the above is in order to establish a baseline of activity, numbers, and trends over a variety habitats and sub-sites within those habitats, and draw conclusions on the diversity of microbes in these habitats, whether they are under stress, and to establish a baseline that future changes can be comapred to.


Okay....I really hope at least some of that made sense. Writing that felt like translating someone else's notes back into regular English >_>; (*cough*Dr Eaton's*cough*)

Anyway....so far we've found 34 of the 37 samples that Dr. Eaton placed on the list, which he decided was still good enough to work with. Two samples of 20 grams each were taken from the bags and are to be used for the Organic Carbon measurements. Once we can get 3 or so good work days in a row, we can polish off almost all the measurements required, and finish off that part of the experiement.

So yeah....I'm probably forgetting something (or a lot of things), but...


...it's 1 AM.....and I'm cold....and there's more calculus to do....




Onwards and upwards....or something

Hum, the calm before the storm

Well, it's about to come to an end, but then again, it doesn't look like it's going to be much of a storm for a while.

Karen and I got our synopsis for the next year on monday, and it looks great. PCR, gels, respiration rates, and on and on. Despite the enormous amount of material that was covered in the 2.5 hour period, i think i can keep with it. Everything made sense, and since I've done most of the techniques covered at least once before....

What's really exciting is the results of all this work that's going to be done. I know it sounds a bit stereotypical, but i wasn't sure what new things were out there in the realm of microbiolgy. However...evidently something like this has never been done before.

Cool stuff! Now that the group knows where the ball is gonna be rolling, all we have to do now is start it up!

Aha~ Blogging

Hum. So, I'll start from square one. My name is Jay Hennen, I just turned 17, and I live on the outskirts of Sequim, about 5 minutes from the Dungeness River. I've lived in a few places throughout my life, including 8 years in Mill Valley, CA, 1 year in Singapore, 1 year in Jakarta, Indonesia, and 7 years here on the Peninsula. My family and I also spend a lot of time on vacations, because up until I started college last year both my brother and I were homeschooled.

So far we've been to every state west of the mississippi, about 4 or 5 states east of it, and Alaska. We'd spend weeks at a time driving around different areas of the country, taking 1-2 hikes every day. So yeah....name any major geological feature, especially in the southwest, and I've most likely seen it, or at least been nearby. Since my mom's family are centered around Singapore and Indonesia, we visit there frequently too, and have taken time off to go touring in China, India, New Zealand, and Burma. So, i've seen my share of different kinds of ecosystems...and ecological disasters.

Just like Jenn, I discovered my interest in biology after the first quarter of school, with Environmental Science and the Biology series. For me, REU is a chance to receive some hands-on science work, experience which I wouldn't be able to gain until graduate school normally. Over this last summer I worked with the wildlife crew, and this school year I've signed up for the microbiology crew, so I can get some experience in lab work as well as field biology.