Down to the wire

Well folks...after tomorrow there are exactly two weeks left of the semester!  Where did the time go?  Estrella Mountain conference is just around the corner as is the Metro tech presentations on the last day of school.  I see everyone getting their projects wrapped up so that posters can be made and presentations in order.  I must say that this semesters interns have done a great job.  I think that we have all been fortunate to see the progress of all our peers, to interact and to learn with one another.

                                                                         An Algae Smile
                   
Well surprise again....I took samples of my water today and although I did have many more nematodes and a ton of green and blue-green algae, one factor that is missing this time around are my diatoms.  I'm am guessing that they have hit their peak (oh somewhere between day 71 and today (day 78) and died off.  I'm going to test my theory again tomorrow and pull some more samples to see if I was just unlucky in my water selection.  Its amazing...Diatoms commanded such a presence for most of my experiment and now, they are just gone.  I guess that is the whole point of this experiment.  To see the succession of microbes, the rise and fall of different species found in pond water.  I'm a bit sad to see them all just disappear, they were my first "cool" discovery but I guess nematodes are more interesting as they are way more complex.  The only thing about the nematodes is that they are so fast that it is hard for me to get a good photo of them.  They seem to just wiz past my view and when you are looking for something the size of a few microns, a second is all you get sometimes.  I have used corn syrup before to try to slow them down as the fluid is much more viscus, it impedes their speed but I can really make a mess of the microscopes and that is not something that I want to do. 

I hope that everyone here doing this internship realize what this opportunity means and uses it to the fullest.  There are people in our fields who never get a chance to do some of the interesting individual projects that we have.  The free reign to explore our option and to collect data using anything that we can pretty much put our hands on.
I can say that this internship has really changed me and I have been lucky to have met some of the people that we have been working so closely with over the past few months.  I won't see you guys next Thursday at the conference so I want to wish you all good luck and I can't wait to see the posters when you get back.

Have you ever been working on something and gotten to a point where you don't think you can go any further? Well that happened to me this week.  I've been working on my hay infusion project for over 70 days now and although it has been extremely exciting, I really didn't think that after all this time I'd find any new species of microbes BUT surprise....I did.
My new addition to my macrocosm are nematodes. I was so ecstatic that after such a long time of just counting all of my known species I was now able to add a new microbe to my list.  
What are nematodes you ask?  Well according to my recent research they are the most numerous multi-cellular organisms on earth!  The are free living species which are very abundant and they feed on bacteria, other nutrients and in my case, fungi.  There are two types one is parasitic (living off the host like a type of roundworm) and a non-parasitic ones that live in the water and on land (nematode.unl.edu). 

I have a few photo's of them, they were moving so fast under the microscope that my pictures were a bit blurry but they are the worm like objects at the top right and left of the photo.

It has take me some time to compile all of my data in a format that I could manipulate using Excel, here are the first drafts of my microbe succession date tables...if nothing else they are nice to look at!!!

 

This is a graph outlining the microbes that I found from the top section of my water

Disappointed but releaved

Well congratulations to everyone who got accepted to present next month at the Estrella Mountain College student conference.  Sadly, I will not be joining you all...I know right (I was thinking the same thing).  How does an experiment with so many great photos and evolution get over looked??  I guess it was the wording of my abstract that they didn't care too much for (that's what I keep telling myself anyways!!).  It turns out to be a blessing in disguise, I have a criminology final that day.  I did however hear from Amanda C that I will still be able to present my findings to the faculty here at PC so one way or another...I'll be presenting to someone.


Well as the semester is wrapping up, I have been asked to come in on Tuesday and Thursday evenings to help the Micro teacher, Jodi.  It has really be great so far.  I LOVED mirco...it was one of my most favorite science classes and now I get to do the labs all over again, sharpen my skills as I help the class.  It is really great to get to help the students and get to know them.  I thought that I would be more nervous then I was but I think that I fit in well and Jodi and I get along well together.

We have been working on the Kirby Bauer test and finding the best antibiotics for each students patient unknown.  It has proved to be difficult for a few students but sometimes all they need is a nudge in the right direction, with just a little research and stick-to-it-ive-ness, I know that the class will be successful.  Who knows...maybe there might be a teacher in me somewhere???

One a personal note....I was asked today by the chair of my department in Criminal Justice/Forensic Science to be a student speaker for our convocation.  It is truly an honor for me and I hope to inspire my fellow classmates with a parting words.

What's really in our water?

This week I sat with Matt to try to figure out what is a good next step for my project.  Although it is coming along great...there is not a whole lot more that I can do from here, except to see classify and identify the microbes that I have.  As I mentioned earlier, all I add is DI water so my experiment never gets contaminated.  So i think that my next move is going to be sampling canal water from one of the many canals that er have here in phoenix, run the same experiment and see what is in untreated water.  I did a bit of research to see if the water that was originally collected from Papago Park, had been treated in any way.  This led me to some fascinating information about the process that takes place before we get our tap water.  This is not for the weak!! 
There are only three stages of treatment that out water goes through before we get it and depending on the location, population of your city and the sophistication of the water treatment plant, it may not even go through three stages...yes you read correctly.

The first stage is the primary: - works like a septic tank, the water is allowed to sit and the solid waste settles on the bottom while the scum floats to the top.  The bottom layer is sucked out and either dumped in a landfill or it is incinerated.  The water is them pushed through screens that separate the scum from the water.  This may be the ONLY stage before chlorine is added to kill the bacteria...GROSS

The second stage removes organic material and nutrients.  This is done by adding special bacteria to the water as it flows to large aerated tanks where the bacteria consume everything they can.  The wastewater (politically correct) then flows to settling tanks.  This process removes about 90% of all solid and organic material from the water.

The third stage is broken down into two clarifying stages, typically chemicals are used to remove phosphorous and nitrogen from the water.  The chlorine is added to the water to kill the remaining bacteria...this is the reason why our tap water tastes like pool water!!

Now our water is read to drink....or is it...you be the judge!!