Yesterday (18 September) all of us phage-ers used a slightly different procedure. We prepared the agar plate as usual to go along with our final samples, but we also prepared another plate with 7H9+1mM CaCl_2 agar and the host bacterium that has been used in years past: Mycobacterium Smegmatus (Smeg). We spotted that new type of plate with 0, -1, -2, -3, and -4 concentrations of each of our three phage solution samples. Today (off-day for lab) I went in to go check and see if one day was possible a better time than the five day growth time that we usually allow. With the Arthrobacter host, the results are unclear. Most of the class’s plates seemed very clean; however, my plate and Walker’s plate both showed some possible phage action: his much more so than mine, mine is likely just contamination. But when I looked in the incubator at the plates for the Smeg host, many plates showed very positive signs of phage presence: a welcome sign! I am hopeful for Arthrobacter Phage activity in at least Walker’s plate and if that fails, for some progression of research with the Smeg host.