Week 8 Fall 2018: SEM, Guest Speaker, and ASU West

This week we prepped the stutzeri and fluorescence plastic 3 time study samples for the SEM (Scanning electron microscopy). Today we analyzed as much as we could but we had a guest speaker for STEAM club (I am VP for the club) so we had to cut our session short at the SEM so we could be in attendance. It kind of sucks for me though since I have a class and have to leave club early, so I missed most of the lecture which was about ecology and entomology. Shame. Tomorrow I look forward to the ASU West Mixer, I will get the opportunity to speak with the professor of Applied Computing about eventually joining their internship. Busy week.

Week 7 Fall 2018: FTIR (ghost) protocol

(https://talkfilmsociety.com/articles/blue-is-glue-red-is-dead-mission-impossible-ghost-protocol)

Well this week and last week we have been brainstorming and researching the best ways to use the FTIR for our co-incubated microplastic samples. We have found several articles that we can learn from. We are really trying to have consistency with our plastics which is a huge challenge considering microplastics are naturally irregular. We are working on a solution to this problem. Basically we have to create our own protocols for our biodegradation analysis. Hence my title, first off I love the movie and every time I hear the word protocol I think of it, but I thought the gif was fitting since I'm coming out of midterms this past week and a half.

Week 6 Fall 2018: Fall Break

(https://www.ewa.org/blog-educated-reporter/limits-testing-getting-beyond-standardized-story)

This week is fall break for my kids. I have no fall break. You can see how this can be a bit of a problem. I have not been in the lab this week but I have been busy. I have found new plastics and a very specific tool for the project. I have to turn in my background which is late. This week has been a busy one, I had two midterms and I have my last one next week for statistics. Well I promise to have something more exciting next week. One can only hope.

Week 5 Fall 2018: AZBIO conference

Let the fiesta begin! I am blogging as Kassy and I sit and wait for our cocktail hour to begin at the AZBIO Awards conference. We got here extremely early but it has been nice to claim a great spot near the front of the room. We have been walking around and have seen many interesting posters. The crowd is very diverse lots of young students and many different projects and I have yet to see one like ours. I am so excited for the festivities to begin. I'll let you all know how it ends next week. Time to order my complementary margarita. 

Week 4 Fall 2018: Good Luck Kassy!

Kassy is on her way to Maryland to present at the WAESO conference as I type. I am so proud of her. She has worked so hard and I know she will represent the team very well. Ibrahim will also be there to represent, so it's nice to know we will be presenting twice. Good luck to everyone going! (Sam and Daisy too) Today Amanda and I will be holding down the fort here. We are taking our Psedomonas aeruginosa plastic #3 7-28 day co-incubated samples to look for surface biodegredation. I am so excited to possibly see visual differences from each time interval.

Week 3 Fall 2018: Getting Older

This week has been a little slow. Kassy and I had a mock presentation this week with Dr. Cotter and Amanda as our audience. It was nice to go over everything again since we have not presented in  several months. Another thing is that I have been alcohol treating our plastic number 4. I did the treatment on Friday and it has still not fully evaporated. I expect that it will be dry in the hood sometime tomorrow. The highlight of the week is the fact that today is my birthday! Although that does not mean anything crazy is going to happen. I think well go out to dinner which makes me so happy, and I will be getting an new phone tomorrow. Which is kind of curse because I do not which phone I want. I am loyal to Samsung but I am so tempted to get an Iphone. Help me out guys give me your best advice and reviews. Thanks in advance.                                   

Week 2 Fall 2018: SEM Day

This image was taken from the Phoenix College website

So today was very productive, all three of us went to the SEM in the newly remodeled C building. Dr Hamdan helped us and walked us through the methods for using the SEM correctly. It was a challenge to get very clear images, especially on the rougher surfaced microplastics. Unfortunately Kassandra and I had to leave before all the images were taken due to our class schedules but luckily Amanda was able to stay and finish. I am so glad that we will be going back because I definitely need more time with the machine and the techniques. (For those that do not know SEM stands for Scanning Electron Microscope.) Although I do not feel like I had enough time with the SEM today, I am excited to be able to grasp and understand the whole process so much better. I can feel more confident when presenting our research going forward now that I will have first hand experience with the protocols, equipment, and images.