March 22nd
Today Mr. Urban
leaves us, so from now on its just Mr. Adams and me. I made gel to run the last
PCR experiment, which was 5 microliter, so I added 1 microliter of dye. After running
the gel we found that 3 of the new species (Safia) worked well with the
conditions, but we couldn’t take a picture because the Electrophoresis didn’t work.
After we checked that the species worked, I designed another experiment to run
on Thursday.
The specimen that
worked from last week was sent for sequencing so we simply have to wait for
results so we can place the species in their right group of species in the
family tree. The species that didn’t work are ZAL 2, 6 and 16 (Barcita
phaegrapha). Mr. Adams suggested that we re-run the species that didn’t work
and see which conditions will work better for them.
Now that I can
prepare the PCR by myself I feel more confidant that ever being in a lab. I can
even create experiments, decide amounts of ingredients needed for each and run
them all by myself. After the results from sequencing we will be working more
on the morphology part of the species than the molecular data set.
Josephine, I am very proud of your progress so far. You seem like a researcher to me as well! Your explanations are clear and convincing, and you are even doing independent work. Impressive indeed!
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