Tag: #NCSU

Day 3 @CAAE

The first thing we did was calibrate the scale, weigh the washed filter sheets, and weigh the baked filtered sheets with TSS on it.

This is the final compiled data after baking and weighing filter sheets with TSS from water taken from Falls Lake and Lake Wheeler, which we tested on Tuesday, May 28th.

We had 4 more samples of water from Lake wheeler that came in yesterday and we tested today. This test includes one daily dry filter, one filter solely filtered with water, one lab duplicate, and the 4 standard samples.

Taking a break to enter the data from Tuesday’s filtering, we went into Joy-Lynn’s cubical and she showed me her super cool ergonomic chair!

After lunch, endures the long process of writing down the layout of both stormwater and Neuse River SRP (orthophosphate) samples and typing them in for the auto-analyzer to run.

Day 2 @CAAE

Today I am crunching numbers while the rest of the staff takes a CPR class from 10-4.
For this first stack, I am adding all the rows and then totaling those rows at the very bottom. These pages are called EPA NLA Phytoplankton Data Sheets.
For the second stack, I am multiplying certain specific values listed by two and recording them on a data sheet that compiles the final numbers. The pages on the left are blank for the calculated results made on the other page; the pages on the right are the data sheets for the silica analysis run we did yesterday and are also used for the several calculations made. I don’t have a picture but I also made a total of 800 copies of different documents during my breaks.

I finished calculating and writing the results down for the analysis of the silica tests from yesterday.
I also finished 21 of the phytoplankton data sheets.
However, I still have probably over 100 more left for another day.
At the end of a long day, my hard work was rewarded by a Gauze Roll Stretch Band from the CPR class that was kindly thrown at me from the doorway. I guess I’ll always be prepared now 🙂

Day 1: Toly Who?!

Today was a very exciting day in the lab! I started my day at around 9:30 with Jessi, the graduate student for Dr. Lindsey at NC State. We first began by learning how to use various micropipeters and proper lab procedures when dealing with bacteria. Besides wearing safety glasses and a lab coat, one of the most important safety procedures when dealing with bacteria is making sure each flask that will be reused is exposed to a flame- this is to ensure no external contamination. After learning these procedures, Jessi informed me about the project she and Dr. Lindsey have been working on: extracting Tolyporphin from cynobacteria. This project is of crucial importance because currently scientists are unaware of the various functions inside the DNA of Tolyporphin and its origins inside the cyanobacteria. To truly understand this concept, Jessi taught me how to read a cell map and design a genetic sequence that can be inserted into a bacteria. Moreover, one of the preliminary experiments today was preparing solutions of old Tolyporphin bacteria cultures and placing them into new base antibiotic solutions. This experiment was an application of the micropipeting skills Jessi taught me earlier, with a focus on precision and minimizing error. For Jessi, this procedure is important so that the bacteria in the flasks are able to continue for longer periods of time and not die out.

At around 12:00, Jessi, her friend, a post-doc at duke, and I went to go eat lunch at a nearby restaurant- the food was amazing! I remember Jessi recounting to me how most days graduate students in her lab would grab lunch here and stop at the nearby coffee shop next door.



I honestly can not thank Jessi and Dr. Lindsey enough for this amazing experience. It is truly fascinating to see all the hustle and bustle of scientists throughout the university, in the labs, and across the offices - ground breaking research really is at every corner.

Day 1 @CAAE

Welcome to the NC State Center For Applied Aquatic Ecology!

Here are some machines that I learned how to use today as well as some important processes to remember:

Testing template for silica in water and seawater

High purity water machine

quAAtro machine flushing and stabilizing before analyzing [the quAAtro machine is also referred to as the Continuous-Flow Injection Auto-Analyzer] (see attached link below)

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32 silica samples taken from falls lake for a student working on her PhD

Testing for total suspended solids from falls lake with labeled water samples and glass microfiber filters

quAAtro machine analyzing silica samples from falls lake (see attached link below)

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TSS filtering in process (see attached link below)

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Data recorded from the filtering- includes filter paper number, filter paper weight in milligrams, volume of water added, and sample name. The filter and residue weight will be measured Thursday after the filter paper is dried in the oven at 104.1°C. The samples included 3 field duplicates usually meaning they were collected using the same collecting methods and for every ten samples, we did a lab duplicate to see if our filtering methods yielded consistent results. Gathering all the data from filtering took 3 hours, which did not include weighing 30 glass microfiber filters before which took another full hour!

These are the glass microfiber filters after filtering the lake samples

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