[Reu_journal] June 12, 2007

[Tracy fanous]

This may possibly be a duplicate as my computer malfunctioned right when I 
had just about completed my journal entry!

Yesterday Dr. Miskevich assisted the staff at the Ft. Worth Zoo with some 
equipment, so I spent the day defining terms from my articles and the 
Plasmid Purification handbook and making a list of questions.

Today was my first day of actual "hands-on" experience in the lab.  After 
asking Dr. Miskevich my questions, he demonstrated how to anesthetise the 
tadpoles and dissect the brain using a hypodermic needle and tiny forceps.  
(All done while peering through the microscope!).  Then it was my turn.  
While I do have some experience with dissection, let me tell you that this 
quite another ballgame.  It was very strange learning how to manipulate 
those tiny instruments under a microscope in such a manner just to 
successfully pin the tiny, delicate, and very slippery specimen--let alone 
remove the miniscule brain intact and undamaged.  I practiced on tadpole 
after tadpole.  I guess you could say that I am now officially a serial 
tadpole killer (but what can I say...at least I made sure that they were 
completely unconscious, so at least I am a conscientious and humane killer 
as far as killers go!).  Dr. Miskevich says that it will require practice 
over the course of the week (dissecting about 100 tadpoles) in order to gain 
proficiency.  By the end of the day, I had experimented with many different 
techniques in pinning the specimen and extracting the brain.

Dr. Miskevich also showed me how to smear the bacteria and the antibiotic 
onto the agar plate for overnight culturing.  The bacteria that are not 
resistant to the antibiotic will die off, leaving only those bacteria with 
the specific marker for the antibiotic.

Stand by for the latest developments in this adventure . . .

By the way, any of you who are interested in watching these tiny little 
creatures develop are welcome to stop by and get a jar of them.  They have a 
high mortality rate, so if you take 10 of them, maybe one will develop into 
a frog (albino!).  Let me know if you have any questions about these little 
guys.

_________________________________________________________________
Play games, earn tickets, get cool prizes. Play now–it's FREE! 
http://club.live.com/home.aspx?icid=CLUB_hotmailtextlink1