Tuesday, July 21, 2015

A Complex Lab and an Enlightening Workshop

Eating a bowl of Trix and cold milk in four minutes is an accomplishment. I accomplished this Tuesday morning at 8:24 AM, six minutes before my class started. 

Feeling content with sustenance in my stomach, I speed-walked to the Bio Medical Center, where my class was. Luckily, I arrived in the laboratory on time. I grabbed my lab coat, put of my gloves, and prepared for lab I would be performing.

Today I executed a lab in which I prepared E. Coli bacterial cells to uptake plasmid DNA. In the second part of the lab, I transformed the bacterial cells with recombinant plasmid, which I created yesterday, containing two antibiotic resistance genes: ampicillin and kanamycin. Because there was a waiting period of about forty to sixty minutes in the experiment, Professor Hall discussed how the results should theoretically be. After the waiting period was over, I took samples of the transformed cells and plated them onto nine plates with LB agar. After spreading the samples on the nine plates, I set them to incubate for fifteen to twenty hours. After the incubation period is complete tomorrow, I will compare the results and analyze how successful my experiment was.

At around 12:00 PM, I went to lunch with my new friends, Ousmane and Brian. We had lunch at the V-Dub. As a continuation from yesterday, we maintained our debate about which is better: the V-Dub or the Ratty. 

After lunch, I went to Marcy Hall to get my fan replaced. Last week, my fan fell backwards and one of the blades broke. However, when I got there, I found out that the office hours were over for the day. I disappointingly took my fan back to my dorm, hopefully to get it replaced tomorrow. On the other hand, I enjoyed the thirty-minute walk in the warm weather. 

After returning to my dorm, I decided to read about the lab I will be performing tomorrow. I watched some YouTube videos of one of my favorite channels, Buzzfeed, after a really long time.

At 6:00 PM, I went to dinner. Dinner wasn't quite satisfying. After dinner, I arrived half an hour early to a day-long awaited workshop called Writing the College Admission Essays. This workshop was presented by Tiffiney George, an admission officer of Brown University. The presentation was outstanding. I learned about so many new things which I wasn't aware of earlier, such as colleges are looking for personality glimpses in the college essay and college supplements should be answered to the degree of specificity asked. Most of the information she shared was very new to me. It was interesting to find out what admission officers are looking for in a college application from an admission officer herself. After the workshop ended, I stayed a few minutes to talk to her and ask her some questions I had in mind. I am so glad I went to this pre-college experience workshop. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a picture with her. 

After the workshop, Jackie and I returned to our dorm. We worked until quite late before going to sleep. Tomorrow I have a few workshops lined up for myself and I will be watching a movie with my class in the evening called Ghost in Your Genes. I can't wait to tell you all about my experiment, workshops, and the movie tomorrow.

Jackie and I working late at night in our dorm. Photo credit to Andrea.

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