Wow! I can’t believe we did it! After a whole semester we finally have our DNA, I almost stopped believing this would ever happen. There were so many times during the semester when I just wanted to quit. Maybe I would come in to lab and find that my whole plate was contaminated or spend an hour figuring out why the TA would not settle. However, now I know all those mess-ups were completely necessary for my learning. I have learned so much more by messing up all those times than if everything had gone by the book. Looking back on this lab course I would not change a single day of lab. All of the things we have learned throughout the course, the perseverance, the teamwork, everything has been such a valuable experience that I would not change. And now I have Ranger and he is the best little phage there has ever been.

Peace Out SEA-Phages 2013!

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/430096/october-30-2013/jack-andraka?xrs=share_copy

I know not all of us are pre-med students, but this is really interesting. Stephen Colbert interviews this high school student who found a way to screen for cancer! I Wish I was a genius like this kid, it is crazy that there are these people out there!

I have found that these past couple months have been like a really unlucky game of chutes and ladders. Every time we roll, we make some progress, but then we somehow always end on a chute. But last Thursday we rolled again and hit a ladder! We found a phage! Now onto purifying. Hopefully from now on we will keep having good rolls and hit all the ladders along the way. May the odds be ever in your favor!

I know that failure is supposed to be part of science, but failure still is not fun. I know Dr. Gibbon and Dr. Adair would probably say that all this time spent not finding a phage is a good lesson for us, but I am just so happy it is over. Finally, the end to enrich, grid the plate, serially dilute, etc., repeat is over! Bethany was kind enough to hand over her phage to my clumsy (but loving) hands and now we get to end the monotony of the past two months and work with an actual phage! Let the purifying begin! Tomorrow we get to check our purified phages and make more progress!