I can't believe we're almost half way through these seven weeks! Wow, times goes by really fast. I wish I could have a time machine because I need more time to do my project, haha. Speaking of my project, we finished the first part of it last week. :-D I took measurements of the toluene samples three times a day, and Ruoting took samples to the flow cytometer at UNC to see if horizontal gene transfer between the P. putida and E-coli was occuring. We found that all the bottles, or our "bioreactors," were reacting just as we had expected, except for the ones with E-coli and its conjugate-they weren't degrading toluene. Ruoting and I were very sad. :-( But then, on Saturday, we started a new batch that had lower amounts of toluene, and today, I measured the concentrations, and they went down! That was really exciting. So I'm hoping that the decrease in concentration is due to the E-coli working. Another possibility is that the toluene is escaping from the bottles into the air, but that is very unlikely since they are vaccum sealed. So yay, this week has been really productive, and we might have discovered something! Now I'm going to lunch; I have this McDonald Southern Chicken Sandwhich coupon that I want to use... ;-)
I really liked the AIDS talk that was given last week, and I was shocked that people with salaries over $12,000 couldn't get financial aid for therapies and medicines in North Carolina. Now I have this urge to write a letter to our congressmen about this issue... It'll probably not do any good, but I'll write it anyway. And then we can all sign it! :-)
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