Week #6 My Pursuit of Happiness: I Just Plagiarized Myself

Sadly, when I came in on Monday morning, Matt informed me that the incubator which housed my plants also was home to a microenvironment. What? Yeah, the microenvironment consisted of an air current in the back of the incubator which dried out two entire planters. Fortunately, I had already recorded most of my data for this stage of the project. Back to square one once we return from Spring break. Does this remind anyone of my plants dying in 2013 because a different incubator formed an ice block in the back? I will entertain all conspiracy theories.

Also, I discovered that I plagiarized someone's paper today and it took me all day to do it! Well, 20%, according to turnitin; 18% of which is from a student's paper in 2013. That very student was attending PC at the time. Okay, I admit it. It was my paper. Since I am taking my project and expanding upon it, like the Irish girls who won $50,000 and an all paid trip to the Galapagos Islands, the first portion of my abstract is the same. Although I didn't submit that project to Estrella Mountain, I wonder if the software will tell them that I plagiarized myself too? Once again a conspiracy; or is it the micromoon tonight?

*UPDATE* Matt also informed me that the student who expanded upon my project from another semester won second place at Estrella a couple of semesters ago. Conspiracy.

Quite possibly the cheesiest indie I have seen...but the moon nonetheless...

Week #5 [raiz] Rhizobium [raiz]

So far, I have planted two rounds of seeds as controls and two with Rhizobium. Although I will have to count the data to see if there was a statistical difference in germination, a visual difference is offered by the corn. The corn planted with the Rhizobium has grown much faster than the corn planted without. Unfortunately, the other four specimens have not visually shown an advantage for Rhizobium. For this reason among others, I decided to replicate the first round. Although it is harder to keep all variables exactly the same (e.g. watering, data collection frequency etc...), the second round is not mirroring the first in any way; except for the radishes which are flourishing just as much as the first time. A possible explanation of this is that the second round of plants dried up over this past weekend even though they were watered on Friday. 

Unfortunately, I cannot be in the lab everyday to record germination counts and to water (and talk) to my plants. Matt and Amanda (and Josh) have all assisted in my absence (Thank you). This week is going to be especially difficult as I will only be in the lab two days. I probably won't start the third round until next week. I will choose a different inoculant but use the same seeds; meanwhile I will try to limit the variability. Regardless, this is all new territory for me, so I am not surprised by the gap between what I expect to happen and what is actually happening. Our conference isn't until May, so we still have plenty of time to collect data; however, in order to measure growth, we are waiting approximately three weeks after each planting. Only time will tell. The below pictures aren't the best representation of the different growth rates; however, the corn in the picture on the right has grown substantially more than that on the left and they were planted at the same time. I have recorded the measurements and will present them in my final project.

     

Week #4 If Superman Can Do It...

This week I am taking a step aside from Rhizobium and focusing on a the presentation a group of us attended yesterday given by Dr. Claudia Alexander et al. involving the landing of a satellite on a comet. Before attending the presentation, I looked at her C.V. and a newspaper article Amanda circulated. If awestruck describes how I felt before listening to an individual with a PhD in Physics and Space Plasma, I was moonstruck by the time the presentation was over.

Was this science fiction or science fact? I arrived at about 10:50 and The Hacienda Room was already standing room only. Well, I actually secured a chair but offered it to Matt who in turn gave it to Paul. I wasn't happy with all the late arrivals and the locked doors should have been a blatant sign that admittance was no longer allowed; however, the outsiders insisted, the insiders resisted, but to no avail. 

For those of you who missed it, between the European Space Agency and Nasa, we have managed to land a satellite about the size of a dishwasher on a comet orbiting in deep space (around the depths of Jupiter), at a speed of approximately 84,000 miles per hour and with a gravitational pull around 60,000 times less than earth, put it to sleep for three years to conserve energy, and awake it on January 20th of this year; all in the name of collecting potential extraterrestrial material. 

What? If we can manage that, I have a on-going list of items which I think should be fairly simplistic to accomplish yet still poses a threat to the human race. Awestruck, Moonstruck, and now, simply flabbergasted. Thanks for sharing the invite with us Amanda. It was time well spent.

Week #3 Creativity Sapped...Spirit Soars with Rhizobium

This has been an exciting week. Now, for those of you who don’t know me very well, it’s probably difficult to determine whether or not I am joking; however, for those of you who do, you know that inoculating  non-leguminous seeds with Rhizobium sp. and watching them germinate faster than the control is going to be the highlight of my weekend. I am glad Matt shares my excitement in this endeavor; not to mention our favorite color is green. We actually ran a statistical analysis on the limited data we have collected thus far and the p-value (1%) is actually significant. One of the drawbacks of this experiment is the weekend. My seeds are growing so quickly that this three day weekend is going to skew my results. I am disappointed but will run another round next week.

Safety First

Color Coordination: A prerequisite to any successful lab colleague relationship

Week #2 The Supplies Are In...Let's Begin...

My project is moving along quite nicely. We are only in week two and I have all of my research, supporting articles, supplies, outline and protocol. The ribbon cutting ceremony will be performed on Monday and all are invited. In all, I hope to have performed my entire project within 4-6 weeks; which will be just in time for our Estrella Mountain submissions. 

As I mentioned last week, I am looking forward to this opportunity because I will be taking a previous project which I successfully completed in the Fall of 2013 and will be adding on a revolutionary component. My work, although not rocket science, is very specific and detailed and may be hard to follow unless you know the basics about legumes, non-legumes, rhizobia, nodules, nitrogen fixation, and bio-fertilizers. Those are all excellent keywords if you wanted to do any independent research; however, the purpose of my blog will be to guide you along the way.

Last week's post explained how rhizobia infect the roots of legumes and form nodules. These nodules represent a symbiotic relationship with the plant by tapping into the plant’s energy source (carbohydrates: malate and succinate) and in turn provide the much need nitrogen for ammonia conversion, plant growth and increase the overall nitrogen present in the soil (nitrogen cycle).

Our goal for this project is to take different strains of rhizobia and inoculate non-legume seeds to determine if we can "infect" the rhizosphere of the individual plants and enhance/promote the quality of germination and growth. If we are successful, this would lead the way into providing alternative bio-fertilizers for agricultural purposes. If you had to choose between chemical based pesticides and a natural bio-fertilizer which yields the same results, which would you choose? 

A caveat before I close: if you are researching this or following along, do not get the scope of this project confused with Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR). Believe me, I was confused for a minute too. These bacteria are also considered as bio-fertilizers but the application has been around for decades. If you are interested, I direct you to the following page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhizobacteria. I am only using Wikipedia to give you a general idea of what's going on and to contrast PGPR with the scope of my project. 

I must be a nerd because I actually enjoy all of this! :) 

Rhizobacteria. (2014, October 17). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 19:59, February 5, 2015, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rhizobacteria&oldid=630000272

Week #1 This Is Earth Shattering...Well, It's Really Vermiculite...

It's great to be back; especially since I didn’t think I was returning, and it's even more exciting to tackle a project which I left unfinished a couple of semesters ago. If we all casually take a step into the TARDIS (watch your hands and feet) and travel back to the fall of 2013, I had the opportunity to isolate Rhizobia from nodules of legumes which I planted at Phoenix College. For those of you who are not familiar with these bacteria, let me cite my own paper from that time.

Rhizobia are gram negative bacteria found in the soil that form a symbiotic relationship with legumes by infecting their roots and subsequently engaging in nitrogen fixation. This process involves the conversion of atmospheric nitrogen into ammonia which will be used by the legumes to produce protein and consequently grow faster (Graham, 2001, p. 94). Sounds pretty interesting, huh?

The next step of my project was to try and inoculate non-legumes with Rhizobia to see if that increased the rate of germination and growth. I didn't have time to complete that part of the project; however, do you realize the implications of being able to speed up the life cycle of non-legumes? Well, I am sure we are many years away from collecting enough evidence to support that these bacteria would be harmless in the process; nevertheless, their presence in legumes does not appear to pose a threat. Since I am not interested in the full life cycle of the plant (only germination and growth), I will be using vermiculite instead of soil.

See you around... :)

Graham, P. H. (2001). Nitrogen fixation. In R. Robinson (Ed.), Plant sciences (Vol. 3, pp. 91-95). Farmington Hills, MI: Gale.

Week #14 All I Want For Christmas...

are my two front teeth; and with all the green tea I have been swishing and drinking this semester, my guess is I will get my wish. Although you will see the final results on Friday, my project was a success; a bit stressful at times, but anyone who truly knows me, knows that I haven't learned to take that part out of the equation yet. I think it's hardwired into my DNA and is dramatically shortening my telomeres. I need to work on that: STAT.

I know many of you are moving on. I wish you the best of luck. I know many more of you just arrived. I wish you the same; and just a couple are here to continue the journey that I am ready to finish. Cheers to you as well. 

Before I go, I would like to thank the Academy... and everyone who has made this possible for me: especially, Amanda Chapman, Dijana Music, Matt Haberkorn, Joshua James, past and present scholars and professors, friends, family, and my Shih-Tzu, Xanuc. Thanks again! ¡Gracias a todos!

Jeremy Out!

Two of my favorite videos:

Cheers!