I can’t believe this semester is practically over!! I am pretty excited for the summer, but I am also a bit disappointed for the data I got for my research. My results are inconclusive, and this makes me a bit upset. The purpose of my research was to identify a decrease in mass for any of the plastic strips. Some of the plastic strips had a slightly weight decrease, but others had a weight INCREASE!! How did that happen?? Right now I don’t know what to make of my results, but I am still very passionate on the importance of bioremediation!!! Plastic is everywhere, and we need to do something about it. I have to sit down, and analyze the ways I could improve my experiment for the future. I am not giving up!!!

Plastic Waste is a serious problem!!

  image from: http://www.ecohome.net/sites/www.ecohabitation.com/files/imagecache/G12-Image-principale/nouvelle/plastic-in-landfill-copyright-creative-commons2.jpg

   Over the past week I have taken out the plastic stripes in the plant pots, and winogradsky columns. The plastic stripes in all of the plant pots had no change at all. I was a little disappointed, because I was hoping to find something. However, I kind of expected that to happen, because plastic takes a lot of time to degrade. The purpose of planting them in the pots was to see if phytoremediation could accelerate the degradation. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case, and the plastic stripes remain unchanged.

     

The winogradsky columns before opening them

   The good news is that I did find a bit of change in the weight of the plastic stripes in my winogradsky columns. The change wasn't major, but then again I didn't leave the stripes a long time. Maybe there would have been a greater change if have done that. Now I am ready to move on to the next stage of my project…..identifying the bacteria. That is going to take me a while, and I am not going to finish this semester. 

I didn't collect any data this week, but I did manage to come up with a method for doing this. However, I realized that this is going to take some time. I was hoping to be able to identify the bacteria by the end of the semester, but that is not going to happen. On the bright side, I will be able to have my data on percent degradation. I am really excited, but it is very nerve wrecking. What if there is no change?? There is always that possibility, but then again think about all of the great scientists that have failed once or twice. Hopefully, that won’t happen to me. Other than that, I didn't do anything besides finishing my rough draft. I got a little distracted along the way, because the ant farms in the lab are amazing. However, I think the paper is looking good.Hopefully, next week I collect my data for the final draft...

Ant farms are awesome!!! 

        Are you kidding me??? I can’t believe that is Thursday already. Like I said before, time doesn’t wait for anyone. I feel like I haven’t done anything, and the week is almost gone.  I honestly don’t have anything to do for my project, because I am pretty much waiting to collect the data. I talked to Matt, and he said that I need to start collecting the data next week. I am very excited to see the results of my hard work. However, I don’t look forward to the smell that I am probably going to encounter along the way. Anyway, this week I started to work on my research paper. I have barely started the abstract, and background information. So far it looks good…

I can't believe how time flies by.




Image obtained from: http://9imb150dy03dci7w3gxvi91b.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/iStock_000001227595Small.jpg

Last week was a bit unproductive. I mean there is not a lot that I can do now. I have to wait, and see what happens with my three projects. The first project with the different plant pots worries me, because I didn’t have growth on all of the pots with regular dessert soil. Only one of the five pots with a bean planted had germination and growth. I don’t understand what happened. In addition, the legume plants that were growing on the pots with potting soil are dying!!!

However, the second project with the winogradsky columns is showing progress. There is a change in color in the pond sediment, and the color is changing to a deep green (a sign of bacterial growth!!). I am very excited to see the end results. Well, I am not that excited to smell them.  Honestly, I can’t imagine how putrefying that smell would be!!

Finally, the last project is trying to create my own growth medium for bacteria. Just as the winogradsky columns, this project is a smelly one! The smell was so bad that I had to move my flasks twice, because it bothered other S-STEM scholars. I had to move them to a small incubator, and they seemed to be doing well.

For now, I am going to be working on doing a bit of more research. However, I also have to  focus on my other courses, because the semester is coming to an end. I know there is still seven weeks, but time doesn’t wait for anybody…..

Winogradsky column showing change in color

Plant pots with legume

So spring break is over...

            However, the week before spring break, I was able to move on with my project. That week, I came up with a liquid growth medium for bacteria. This growth medium was a broth containing deionized water, yeast extract, and either plastic stripes or small polyethylene beads.  The broth was made using 400 ml of deionized water, and mixing in 8 grams of yeast extract.  This mixture was prepared six times, and stored in different flasks. Five per-weighted stripes of plastic were added to three of the flasks. One gram of polyethylene beads were added to another three flasks.  

The last few weeks have gone very fast. I can’t believe that spring break is over!

             In order to introduce the bacteria to the broth, one gram of pond muck was added to one of the flasks with the plastic stripes, and another to the flaks with the polyethylene beads.  A gram of dessert soil was also added to one flask with plastic stripes, and another to the flask with the polyethylene beads. The two flask left were used as a control group.

           So far, the flasks have emitted a pungent smell, and I think that is a good sign. Just as with the other parts of my project, all I can do now is wait…..

The six flasks with growth medium

         I can’t believe another week has gone by.  Once again I played the waiting game. However, I have been very productive in writing my Abstract for the EMCC conference. Matt has revised it twice, and it’s looking good. Other than that, I have only watered my plants. I am a bit upset that the bean plants are dying off. At the begging I thought it was too much water, but reducing the amount of water isn’t helping. Matt suggested that they are dying because the plants have outgrown the pots. In addition, I have noticed that some of the Winogradsky columns have changed color to a green or black tone. I am very happy with that, because it is a good sign of bacterial growth. 

My plants are dying!!!