Blogs

Really, the biggest excitement this week was the arrival of the new column for the HPLC. I know it sounds a bit lame, but it arrived in time for me to feasibly finish some of the data before I leave, and before I have to give my presentation next week. There were a few adjustments needed to the different methods after it arrived, mostly since the 10 year old column probably had a lot of its packing material worn down, so the retention time was a lot shorter, since things could just whiz through that column.

This week middle school students are experiencing first hand the latest in ocean science research and technology at the annual Oceanography Summer Camp hosted by CMOP and Saturday Academy.

 So, the good news is that the second compound (2,4-DNT) I tested in the hot water bath at the highest temperature did react. It took it most of the week to mostly be finished reacting, but it did react. This means that I'll be mostly focusing on trying to run this compound for my last few weeks. However, the results of those runs will be delayed until the new column arrives...

       As it sounds, this week was another busy week. It’s very strange that I only have a couple weeks left after this. Where has the summer gone?

This week I have been trying to identify the potential for sulfur oxidation within the community. Because I did not find either soxA or soxB genes (Week 7), I began my research on the sox-independent pathway of sulfur oxidation. A key enzyme in this pathways is APS reductase which catalyzes the conversion of APS --> AMP + sulfite. The gene, aprA, which encodes APS reductase was used to screen the metagenome.

Like all good things, this too must end.  Today is my final day here at CMOP, and I'm grateful for the knowledge I've gained here, the experiences I will leave with, and the connections I've made.  There is T-minus 80 minutes until my final presentation, maybe one final qPCR to run, and goodbyes to be had.  My experience here was filled with self exploration, and I'm leaving with a stronger sense of self and more confidence in my interests and desires for my future.  Anyways, enough personal reflection; here's what I did this week.

I'm pretty sure I am not going crazy.

The experiments on the 120-140 sand column continue. Calculated viscosities for the 1g/L xanthan are still ~5 times higher than what was found during the capillary tube experiments. We considered the possibility that the new batch of xanthan solution was improperly mixed, yielding a concentration far greater that used in our calculations. This idea, however, was forsaken after we tested the fluid in the capillary tubes again- the viscosities there agreed with previous experiments in the tubes.

This week I shifted gears.  Instead of working with environmental water samples I was given the opportunity to work with a graduate student in Dr.