How was everybody's week?? 

Well, my week was awesome!! I am very happy  to communicate that I am going to be part of a research group at ASU (Tempe Campus). I am very excited, but at the same time nervous, because I want to succeed in this new opportunity. The type of research I am going to focus on is GREEN CHEMISTRY RESEARCH!!! I never thought I would have this amazing opportunity. I went to visit Professor Ryan Trovitch today about joining his research group, and he briefly explained to  me his area of research. Honestly, I was a bit overwhelmed,because he was talking about unfamiliar topics, but I tried my best to keep up with him.Professor Trovitch also gave me a couple of research papers to look at, and showed me his lab (its pretty amazing). I wish I had taken some pictures to share with everyone. 

GREEN CHEMISTRY IS THE FUTURE!!

In other news, my algae is starting to grow. I will keep everyone updated, but other than that, there is nothing much to say about my project this semester. 

Image Source: http://climateinc.org/2012/01/green-chemistry-and-clean-energy/ 

Week 7

I am finally starting to grow new algae samples. I realized that up to this point I've been learning through the many mistakes that I made.Like for example, I shouldn't have started growing algae sample on such a small containers. However, the past is behind me, and I ready to start fresh. Honestly, this last few week I felt like i wasn't going anywhere with my project. I really appreciate the help that Anil has been giving me,and hopefully everything will go well. I have everything i need to start the new growth samples, and my only problem is the shortage of algae media. For right now, I will have to use the rest of my media wisely. I think that I am going to have to get new media at my own expense, because I haven't received any of the supplies Anil ordered. 

Is it just me or is time running out!! I think my stress levels are way up high now. Anyway, I talked with Anil about my research, and we came to a lot of conclusions. First, I can’t use the algae I was already growing because the conditions weren’t constant. I realized that the media evaporated over the weekend, and aeration wasn’t constant. I was trying to figure out if I should use aeration or nor by comparing the growth results. However, I decided to use aeration anyway, because there is a lot of research that supports the benefits of it on algae growth.

Like I stated before, I need to start new algae growth, and hopefully I have learned from my mistakes. I am going to leave it in for four weeks and measure the biomass and oil yield at the end. I know time is running out, but I think I have just enough time.

Before starting any new growth, I am waiting to see the results I get from another small experiment, because I am testing the best light for optimal growth.  I also have another problem….. I AM RUNNING OUT OF MEDIA. The media that Josh and Matt gave me is the only one I have, and I am running very low.

Week 5

I know I haven't posted in a while. I really need to start keeping up with my blog. However, I really don't have any major discovery to inform. I have being trying to grow algae from my different sources. I realized that when I started growing my samples, I really didn't think much of finding out the optimal conditions for each algae strain. I mean the idea was to try to grow all the samples from conditions (such as pH, temperature, light, and nutrients) that were the same, and compare the biomass and oil content after a period of time. I really have to emphasize that I don't know how many and which algae strains are present in each water sample collected from four different sources.

I am starting to think that I should take a step back, and reflect on the way I am setting up my research. The good news is that I found a peer review article about a similar research project to mine. In this research, they collected various samples from ponds, and tried to evaluate the presence of algae strains useful for biofuel. However, their approach was to first find the optimal conditions for each algae strain, and then grow each strain using those conditions.

The problem with replicating the same experiment (with my samples)is that I don't have a lot of the materials and devices that they used. I might be able to replicate a part of their experiment, but I need to communicate this idea with Anil to see what he thinks.

I also have started to get a bit frustrated, because I realized that the algae samples that I have been growing have been under too many different conditions.I realized that if I want to have a solid experiment, I need to restart growing new samples.

I just need to sit down and evaluate the next step to take... WISH ME LUCK