Week #4 2/15-2/21

Well, what can I say? This week has been especially challenging because I haven't made one lecture class, one lab, or even one hour in the BioSciences department. I went to campus briefly on Wednesday and lasted about 20 minutes before I knew I had to get home. 'Tis the season for weakened immune systems, warm, humid microbe filled atmospheres, too little sleep, too much to do, and too much stress. 

Luckily, my experiments’ hours do not coincide with our laboratory hours so I do have new data for you. Do you remember the picture I posted last week? Any guesses on what my next species was? Well, after my successful experiment on garlic and its anti-microbial agents against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, we have decided to run the gamut and include many other species. 

With that said, my next victim was ginger. It was going to be horseradish; however, there seems to be someone else or thing in the lab just as fond of the root as I, as it disappeared :-). In addition to this travesty, unfortunately, my cultures for this week did not incubate under the right conditions because the incubator was unplugged. A horseradish root thief and an unplugged incubator... the game is afoot...

So, in lieu of a horseradish root, I used a ginger root (I will leave it up to you to argue whether or not it's an herb or a spice). Although I did observe zones of inhibition as displayed by my pictures below, I need to repeat the experiment because as I previously indicated above, unfortunately the incubator was unplugged. Although I still plan to see zones of inhibition, I do not think I will have as favorable results as the garlic. What do you think? Oh, and don't worry, I didn't give these away as valentine's gifts...

I will start this on Monday of next week and will have those results and more for you by next Thursday. Also, for any of you who are following my blog, I am open to suggestions on what you think might also have anti-microbial agents. So far, the winner is garlic, but we kind of already knew that based on other experiments and data. Matt took me around campus to test many other plants as well. So, throughout this internship, I am sure we can comprise a lengthy list of potential plants and not only compare the results, we can also compare preparation methods, incubation periods, temperatures, and possibly even pH. I apologize for my absence. I have been eating as much garlic as possible. Cheers.