Day 6

As some of you may know, today is my 19th birthday. It turned out to be just another ordinary day. This morning was another disappointment to me. Alex took me to the lab this morning, but we got there before everyone else did. He told me just to look up PCR on the computer until everyone else got there later. PCR stands for polymerase chain reaction. Most people know it as the machine that determines the “DNA fingerprint” on the forensic tv shows. I learned quite a bit about it, I won’t bore everyone with the details. When I couldn’t find anything new, I started researching gel electrophoresis which is how a scientist actually sees the DNA sequence (the grid with the blue lines on tv). This took me up until lunch because I went into great depth in my research because I really had nothing else to do.
Alex and Lily took me to lunch in the cafeteria, and Alex explained that he was finishing up a project, so he suggested that I get to know everyone in the lab before I began my own project. At least now I had a reason for being forgotten at a computer, so I decided to make the best of it since that is what most of the interns do during their first week anyway.
After lunch, we took our traditional nap break. I attempted to fix my skype because it has not been loading correctly since I had to switch internet browsers, but I failed miserably and made it worse (if anyone has any suggestions please email me). This took me nearly an hour, so I left to go back to the lab. I watched and helped Alex create graphs on excel to show his experiments’ results of Potassium in cotton roots, and then I went back to my own computer desk and worked in my Chinese language workbook.
At about 3, Tina, a graduate student in the same lab, came over and said she had my project details and went over them with me. Basically I will be growing cotton seeds known to have the transgene, Bt, in them. After they germinate, I will extract DNA from them and use PCR and ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assays) to locate the transgene with the possibility of furthering my analysis to which method is better. She said we would start on it Monday. I was so excited to have a project. I went back to my desk and looked up ELISA since I already knew what PCR and the Bt gene were. ELISA is another way to see the proteins present in a molecule. It is cheaper and faster than PCR because it can be used outside a laboratory, but it is less accurate.
Let me explain what Bt is (I hope I am not boring everyone though). Bt is a gene that was extracted from the bacteria Bactillus thuringiensis. Basically when the gene is put in a plant, the plant produces its own pesticides. It reduces the amount of labor and money farmers have to put into their cotton, but it can also be put in other crops such as corn and soybeans. This creates a genetically modified cotton, and much of China, India, and the US are using it.
My research into topics relating to my project took me up to dinner. Alex was still working on his project and Lily was busy with one of hers, so another graduate student Tony said he would take me to dinner (since I cannot speak Chinese and tell people what I want to eat). He helped me change the cell phone I was given to use on campus to English and figure out its phone number. He also talked with me quite a bit about his research and experiments about growth regulators in cotton. He was very nice. Then, he walked me back to my building since it was raining, and I didn’t have my umbrella with me (so much for it never rains here). This concludes my ordinary, everyday birthday, but at least things went better today. The good things definitely shadowed the bad.