Long week :)

Last week was incredibly difficult for me so I was unable to post a blog post on time but here is what happened:

For my coliform identification, I had to use the positive sample (there was only one from the women's door handle!) and make ETB plates to test for negative bacilli bacteria. For making the agar, I used the below sample to make the plates. The results came back positive so now Josh and I started gram staining to confirm this finding. Later on this week, I will update my blog to tell you whether or not the gram staining testing also came back stating that the bacteria is in fact gram negative, bacilli.



 



For the same experiment, I'm continuing to take samples every Tuesday and Thursday to calculate for the colony forming units or CFUs and the results thus far have been unpredictable. Generally speaking, the inside of the men's door handles tend to typically have less than the outside door handles which is expected given the fact that we had similar data showing that for the previous conference at Arizona State University.


This week in the lab will be more gram staining (not my favorite but I'm improving my technique every day) and more coliform identification. I will also begin working on my poster for the upcoming conference which I believe the poster is due on Monday. I plan on using some of the same materials and methods from my previous conference as this is just a continuation from the previous conference. I will definitely keep you all updated on my results later on this week :)

For Photo of The Day this time, I couldn't pick just one so here are two pictures this week!

This first one is of the lake by my house and I went for a walk on Sunday with my mom and snapped this picture. I love the sun! (you probably see that as a reoccurring theme every week) :)

Over the weekend, I attended a humans rights film festival at Arizona State University with my brother and saw this sticker on someones car on our way there. I thought it was applicable to the theme of the films that were shown. Extremely interesting event and I was able to converse with students and professors after the event.

Hope you all have a successful and productive week. Till next time,

Khadidja M.