Sharanya, Entry #2, Week #3

Last week, our group had its first two sampling days. Yay!!! I've been looking forward to this for a while now and finally I can say that it was a definitely a new learning experience for me. We had to sample twenty cells from forty-eight bottles of Noctiluca cultures, each with one of the four species of prey, and then placed these cells into 5mL tubes that would later be used to determine certain measurements like chlorophyll concentrations and respiration rates. The process itself involved three steps: five rounds of cell counts, extracting 4.9 mL of culture and placing it into the tube, and releasing ten cells into each sampling tube. Along with sampling, we were also running low on seawater, which is used to clean the cells before placing them into the 5mL tubes. So apart from sampling we also had to take turns filtering each liter of seawater. On Friday, our PI also asked use to do another round of sampling to obtain ammonia concentrations. Because conditions in the cultures and the incubators may change after an entire weekend, it was important that our group finish this as soon as possible. Additionally, I also took some time to observe the progress of our cultures in the incubators that are already mixed in with the prey. I noticed that the bottle with 50 Noctiluca cells and Pyramimonas prey was more "green" than most of the other bottles. I later found out that the prey is indeed a

Noctiluca culture with Pyramimonas prey (the yellow label)

chlorophyte, which is a species that is rich in chlorophyll. I have attached an image below:

Outside of the lab, it was my first week coming to lab as a non-commuter. After commuting four hours a day for the first two and a half weeks, I finally moved into my cousin's apartment that is across the street from Columbia Medical Center. I also had lunch with Dr. Peretz, David, Masa, and Will on Wednesday. It was nice hearing from them about their labs and all the different things they have been doing. 

Finally, I am looking forward to sharing our group's results from the sampling soon! They should be in by the end of this week or beginning of next.