Week 5: High and Dry

Monday were the intern mid-term presentations. My presentation went very smoothly, and I was excited to hear about what the other interns are doing and see the results of their research to date. It was particularly interesting to consider the broader connections between everybody's research. We are all doing such different projects, but they all fit into a bigger picture.

Midweek, I ran the second round of PAH calibration tests. This time, we dissolved the standard solution in acetonitrile so that the PAHs would not drop out of solution. The results were much better, and comparing the graphs from this week's experiment to the previous calibration test showed peaks in several areas where they did not show up the first time.

Sometimes things don't go quite as planned, and that was the case for us this week: the water samples we had been expecting from Santa Barbara have been delayed, and we are due to start testing on Monday. Without the desired water from California, we were forced to make a trip to the Oregon coast to collect some samples of our own. On Thursday, we drove to Newport, and sampled water from the marina in Yaquina Bay. We expect that the presence of oil from all of the boat traffic will result in a naturally occurring population of oil-degrading bacteria in that location, which should suffice for our experiments.

Because were sampling from a dock, not a boat, there were unique challenges with obtaining an optimal sample. Our sample container is a 10 L glass bottle, with smooth edges and no handle. To prevent it from dropping to the floor of the bay, we rigged a mesh laundry bag some ropes around it. We needed to sample from as far below the surface as possible, so I had to lean out over the edge of the dock to reach as far underwater as possible to remove the cap. We were quite relieved once the sample had been successfully obtained with no loss of equipment and with minimal difficulty.

This week demonstrated the reality of the ups and downs of research. Despite the trouble we ran into, we were able to adapt and get everything running smoothly in the end. I'm looking forward to Monday when we'll start the biodegradation experiments!