Blogs

Last week marked the end of week 7 for me. My calibration system was designed first and foremost with the ECO Triplet sensors in mind, as those will be the ones taking measurements for CMOP next year. However, because the order hasn't yet come in, I attached another fluorometer from the same manufacturer, WET Labs. There were a few design details and kinks to work out with this other fluorometer, but by Wednesday, I was ready to test for linearity using dye.

This week I have been going over my presentation and trying to finish my project. There is still plenty of analyzing left and along with a few more samples left to be hybridized. I am also starting on my paper. And thats about it.

Today's petroglyph tour was such a great experience. As part of a group of 25 random "tourists," we were guided along a trail overlooking the River that ran beneath a cliff face. On these basalt cliffs are centuries-old pictographs and petroglyphs.

For if you fail you must try and try again.

The lack of success in our cloning experiments is really hindering the progress of the project because we need these plasmids and sequences to make standards for qPCR.

This week was mainly about getting back on track with experiments. On monday I set up a 1,3 DCP batch with Zn64 to start testing both 1,3 DCP degredation on the liquid-phase GC, as well as product production in the headspace GC. On Tuesday, after the 1 day equilibriation time for the Zn64, I spiked in about 60 uM 1,3 DCP and tested on both GC's. Throughout the week I tested this batch but have yet to see any perceptible degredation. This was to be expected though, due to previous tests that have shown 1,3 DCP degredation by ZVZ to be much slower than Allyl Chloride and TCP.

Another busy week has come and gone.  This week was filled with lab work, statistical analysis, field trips, and stress.  I started Monday off by running more water samples through the FlowCAM and further studying their PCA.  We had a lab meeting on Wednesday at which I heard more about other people’s projects and discuss the progress of my project.  On Thursday some of the interns took a trip to Astoria, OR to see the MERTS campus where extensive CMOP field work is done and the research equipment is built.

The end is near as only two weeks remain ...

Last week, a milestone was reached as I felt confident enough in my research to submit final minimums and maximums for S.E.L.F.E modeling. Although, my suggested values for critical salmon habitat aren't supported by expert analysis yet, submitting these values are critical in this project, as time dwindles down. Values will be edited and re-ran as the expert analysis is in response.