Week #4 To Tea or Not To Tea; That Is the Liquidation.

Unfortunately, I was not successful in producing colonies from my streak plates last week. Although bacteria growth was present, the colonies were too crowded and not viable for isolation and subsequent culture growth. Consequently, I had to file 13 my results and swab again. Keep in mind, I am only trying to isolate a couple of microbes out of the hundreds that party in our oral cavity 24/7. In addition, isolation is just the first step of my project as I am trying to determine if drinking tea has a positive impact on oral hygiene by reducing the amount of Streptococcus mutans.

Apart from that, I also expressed my concerns about drinking and/or swishing black tea. I proposed the risk/benefit scenario of potentially eliminating microbes at the cost staining my teeth. Yes, I am serious. Luckily for me, I discovered that black tea may not have the bactericidal properties we previously thought, and that green tea might serve as an optimal substitute.

Like I had mentioned during our first week as S-STEM scholars, my project does seem rather simple; however, after brainstorming for my protocol (which I have still haven't finished), my project is going to be somewhat intense. Just imagine brewing a warm beverage for x minutes from a predetermined volume of sterilized water heated for x minutes and then taking said beverage and swishing x milliliters of it from x amount of disinfected shot glasses for x seconds, streaking @ least three plates, and then repeating the process every 15 minutes for x hours. If you happen to be in lab while I am doing this and you see that my RPM's are revving up too high or that my feet are lifting from the ground, do not stand back. Please grab hold. 

I asked Josh to buy me TAZO GREEN TIPS tea; an affordable and somewhat tasty choice. He said he couldn't find it and bought me the one depicted below. Is he trying to send me a message? Is it tea time yet?