TRAIN Scholar Justine Horton's Blog

 This week was a test of patience, in a good way. Last week I started the process of drying aloe vera and when I came back in on Tuesday there was still a lot of water. It's all okay though because I'm keeping busy with my other experiment. Today, I decide to make another plate with Staphylococcus aureus since it gave me good results last time. The substances I'll be testing are Lysol, 10% bleach, tap water (control) and a "homemade" aloe mixture. I decided to use a homemade mixture because the store bought aloe gel I had been using prior was thick and I felt like the disks weren't absorbing it well. The mixture is simple aloe vera (locally sampled lol) and 20 mL of 95% ethanol.  Set up new plate

On Tuesday, I plated E. Coli and tested the effectiveness of 4 samples to kill the bacteria. The sample included , Aloe Vera gel (store bought), Windex, Tap water, and 70% Isopropyl Alcohol. This experiment was pretty much used to keep me busy as I haven't yet been able to start a project. However when I came in Wednesday, I found some interesting results. The zone of inhibition was basically 0 for every sample, including the isopropyl alcohol. Although the tap water, being the control, and the Windex doesn't jump out as a surprise to me, the 70% Alcohol does. Originally I had two hypothesis's on why this occurred. One being that because E. Coli is a gut bacteria and therefore is built to withstand alcohol. The second theory suggest user error such as the letting the alcohol evaporate to much before I was able to put the disk on the plate. Because of the results on Wednesday and with the first hypothesis in mind, I chose to do another plate instead with Staphylococcus. I ch...

 Hi! This is my first week with TRAIN. This week has been unexpectedly overwhelming. I'm not going to lie I really didn't like it. However today is the first time since I've been at PC that I've gotten to work a compound microscope. I was really excited and enjoyed it so much. I also got to see the internship space for the first time which made me anxious. I'm sure the anxiety will settle and I'll gain my footing soon. I think I'm interested in the E.coli and aloe Vera experiment and have started doing as much research on the topic. Aside from that spring break is next week and my birthday. I'd loved to say that I'll actually be taking a break but I'll most likely be working and watching lecture videos.