Week 2

Today we tested our analazation method. Unfortunaltly we found out early that our method was not the best, we came up with a couple of alternative methods but the one that we ended up going with was very similar to our original but instead we used a smaller grid to get more accurate results.

Today our agar arrived. We began the day with two whole jars and ended it with only one. To elaborate, while we melted the agar on the Bunsen burner, the bottom fell off and glass and agar spilled everywhere in the fumehood. We spent the majority of the hour cleaning this mess, and ended up filling absolutely no plates. However, it was an important learning experience, as we now know to heat the jar to room temperature in heated water before melting the agar.

Today was a pretty uneventful day.  After yesterday's incident with the agar bottle, we decided to heat it up with a hot water bath, so we didn't have to put the cold bottle directly onto the flame. Unfortunately, the water bath did not heat the bottle up as quickly as we were hoping and therefore limiting our progress made.

Today we learned from yesterday and got the bottle of agar into the water bath early. I had some help from former MSA Research students getting the bottle 3/4 melted, but unfortunately it was not fast enough. We had to plan out exactly what to do for Monday next week so we could successfully melt within the hour.