A Day of Learning

I spent the morning and some of the afternoon working in the lab today. Victor and I were supposed to meet Dash, Greg’s former grad student, at 10:30 to learn how to test of Enterococci in the Runoff and soil. I went in early to start working on the Last of the ball milling I was assigned. By the time the others arrived I had gotten through a few rounds and only had a few more to go. Dash showed us the procedure for the runoff and then we practiced on a few samples. The procedure went, diluting the samples, adding the Enterolert, putting the samples in wells, and finally placing them in the incubator for 24 hours. He also showed us how to test for Enterococci in soil, which has a few different steps than in the runoff. After we had finished that, Greg came in and we discussed some of the different ways victor could steer his research. It was good for me to listen in on that, and I had some things to add to the discussion as well. I learned a lot about the intricacies of research and how important every step of a project is. I also learned that there is also a lot of material waste due to the necessity of limiting contamination. I also learned that 2 hours is a long time to run; actually too long of time to run. All in all today was a day filled with learning in one way or another. I also completed all the samples that I was told to ball mill, which is very exciting. On to the next step.