Week #7 3/18-3/21

Well, did everyone survive spring break? I have so much to tell you; I don't even know where to start! I will try to stay focused but I can't make any promises! Firstly, this week was a little shorter. I run my weeks from Friday to Thursday to mesh better with our blog and discussion requirements and since we were off campus last week, I am reporting since Monday of this week. I hope everyone had a great, relaxing time during spring break.  Although I didn't go anywhere, I did have a chance to relax. Below is picture with supporting evidence. 

Now, before we get down to business, I took this shot today on campus. I am not going to muddle my blog with tangents on my political views, but I thought this shot was ever so poignant; especially considering how wrapped up we get in our daily lives with due dates, late appointments, and the pressures of school and the like. So, I took a moment before leaving campus today to reflect on what this meant to me, to us, and although I won't write anymore about it, I got caught up in the moment nonetheless.

Okay, back to business. When we last met, I left you with a new protocol to attempt to eliminate impurities in my procedure. Our victim was ginger. Although I wasn't observing any worthy zones of inhibition, we did notice that colonies of bacteria grew on my plates. Therefore, we changed my protocol to use UVC light to disinfect my equipment as well as the ginger. Unfortunately, I still observed colony growth on the plates; which confirmed that UVC didn't work as well as we thought it would. Since UVC only  treats the surface of the item being treated, it is possible that the ginger carries it's on bacteria which was not eliminated by the UVC. All other equipment (e.g. pestle and mortar, glass cutting plate, scalpel etc... ) were also treated. 

So, with some brainstorming with Matt and additional research, we have decided to change my protocol again. At first, I was getting a little nervous because we have changed my protocol four times now in a very short period of time; however, after speaking with Dr. Cotter and Matt, I feel better about our decisions. If we don't change our approach, we are going to see the same results, right? The last time I checked, that closely met the definition of insanity. So, while trying to preserve my own sanity, we have decided to take our samples, dry them, extract a concentrate, and then apply them to discs and see how they fare with the microbes. I cut mesquite on Wednesday and Matt has given me plenty of literature to read stemming from India to get a better idea of what we are going to be doing. Right now, I am still a little confused and think the semester isn't going to be long enough to finish my experiment. What I do know is that Eastern medicine is light years ahead of Western medicine when it comes to using home remedies and plant life for our ailments. On the western side, we seem to have Pharmaceuticals running the show and on the eastern side, we can observe a more natural and holistic method. Wouldn't it be great to combine the best of both worlds?

With that, I leave you with my final shot of my drying mesquite. I will be reading several scientific articles over the next few days, but I will keep you posted. Good luck and Good Night!