I think that this is the first time that I've posted a picture to my blog. And what a picture to start with!I'm taking a intro to microbiology class this semester, which has both a lab and lecture portion. Lecture hasn't been anything special, but in lab we've been learning some basic techniques. Last Tuesday I made this plate, and I let it incubate at 37 degrees C (that's body temp). When I pulled it out today, I was really excited with what I had found! Look at that--four different colors! How cool is that? And they all started with stuff too small to see with the naked eye.
The translucent one in the top left is E. coli and the yellow in the top right is a strain of Staphyloccocus (aureus? I forget), both from cultures provided by the instructor. The bottom two came from streaking the bottom of my shoe.
The streak from my shoe made a plate that had tons of different kinds of bacteria. I chose two of the colonies that I liked, and made a "pure culture" streak on two different plate, isolating the white and reddish/brownish strains. It's fun when this stuff works. Not only that, but my KOH string tests and Gram staining all worked today! That's a lot better than my ordeals with the staining on Tuesday.
7 comments:
Oh how I love my nerd! It makes me happy that you are so excited about staining!
Eeewww! Maybe it's a good thing we can't see those things with our naked eye. Kind of makes me think that the effort of removing our shoes as we enter the house is a pretty good idea!
It's kind of like...growing a garden?! Except I can eat what I grow (and not get sick.) :D
We're definitely related--I got a little excited just reading about your successes! hahaha I like [micro]biology too! And lub you :)
There are microbes on and in about everything. You eat them all the time, you have a lot that live inside you. Most don't cause any problems. :)
And kel, I'm glad you liked it! Science rules!
Brad, sometimes I don't quite understand what you're talking about. Does that make me not a nerd?
I had a class at the "Y" where I grew some stuff in a dish like that. I think we did something with fruit flies if I remember right. It was pretty interesting. Does that make me a nerd?
Love ya,
Jules
I dub you all honorary nerds, as long as you like the picture. :)
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