Science

Protein Gel

Protein Gel

Separating proteins by size. Very similar to the PCR gel, except here I use Coomasie blue. The little paper towel is to absorb excess dye.

Crazy PCR gel

Crazy PCR gel

I was trying to do a lot of variables at once to amplify a certain fragment of DNA. The bands are individual groups of DNA fragments separated by length (largest at top; smallest at bottom). A special fluorescent dye (Sybrgold) has been used to visualize the DNA. Brighter = more abundant. The two flanking columns ("lanes") are "ladders" of known lengths (like 100 or 200 or 1000 nucleotide "letters" long) to compare to the experimental lanes.

MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration)

MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration)

A series of dilutions were done of meropenem, a "new" beta-lactam antibiotic, plus a fixed amount of bacteria with a special betalactamase enzyme (causes drug resistance to older drugs in this family like penicillin or ampicillin). After letting them grow, I looked for the lowest concentration of meropenem that would visibly kill all the bacteria ( = clear broth). 

Measuring Sterilizer Efficacy

Measuring Sterilizer Efficacy

I was working on an internship coordinated by NASA, my undergraduate research advisor, and a local chemical company. This is just a serial dilution of some bacterial spores exposed to a chemical. The dilutions are 10-fold, so that when I calculate back, theoretically I should get the same original number of spores that survived from any one of these petri plates. But, because some concentrations of cells will be too high (like top right), I have to plate multiple dilutions because I don't know how many would have survived before the attempted sterilization. These spores are super hardy and can survive brief exposure to this sterilizer, UV radiation, outer space, high heat (they actually need to be boiled to revive), etc. They are some of the best chances of Earth life escaping and colonizing other worlds, at least the moon.

Strange Ice

Strange Ice

I needed ice cold and sterilized ultra-pure water for my experiments during an in internship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena. Sometimes I would get lazy because the sterilization uses high heat and pressure, so I would leave the pyrex glass bottles in -80ºC freezers to cool quickly. Well, sometimes I forgot about the water, and these interesting formations would be made as the ice couldn't expand. What you're seeing now is that the edges have frozen, but there is like a bubble of supercooled water in the center. I don't know why the little spikes formed. It was very cool.