Monday, February 8, 2010
Wasps and Foreign Exchange Students
Alright, I'll keep this short. Today I did PCR first of all, which was amazingly simple. Mix stuff up according to the formula provided by the spreadsheet, leave it in the machine for 3 hours, and send it through gel electrophoresis. I don't know how to make this more interesting. Oh, yes, the stuff that was PCR'd was wasp and whitefly DNA (with some bacterial symbionts). Alright, so part of this involves watering the plants on which the whiteflies and their wasp predators, which takes about one or two hours throughout the day. The wasps I'm gonna work with are Eretmocerus emiratus, but since I won't always be doing that, I'll be helping around with projects on other wasps, either from the genus Encarsia or from Eretmocerus. Much fun. I learned how to isolate wasps with an aspirator, which is a valuable tool. This wasn't as short as I would've liked. Day to day the tasks are essentially the same, but the test groups and results will vary immensely.
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Oh yeah, foreign exchange students refers to the fact that there's an Australian foreign exchange student and a Japanese foreign exchange student. I should be working with both of them.
ReplyDeleteWow, X, sounds like you're having a BLAST! But seriously, I know you love this stuff, so don't be afraid to show it...mkay?
ReplyDeleteI'm sure lots of people are wondering: What's PCR? What's electrophoresis? Why are you doing this? What are you talking about?
Hey, Johnston. I think I touched upon that maybe a little on today's post. Is it OK if I just make a daily post (since my skills of clairvoyance aren't strong enough for me to predict exactly what I'll be doing all week)?
ReplyDeleteDaily posts are fine. However, at some point, I think it's a good idea to set out some kind of agenda for the week. You may not be at that stage right now, but you should get there once you get settled in.
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