MICRO - DAY 1

We kicked off the microbiology lab with a few notes on lab safety.  Generally, wear a lab coat, wash your hands, wipe your station down with 2% lysol, wash your hands, throw out hazardous material in the designated baggie, wash your hands, and generally try to avoid contracting a deadly strain of bacterial disease.

After that, we were shown how to use proper Aseptic technique, courtesy of Joseph Lister: 

(....  if those sideburns were any bigger, they'd need their own address)

Once these pleasantries were dispensed with, we got right down to the nitty gritty.  Dr. Joseph had us all begin by collecting environmental samples, in order to culture some bacteria.  Some of the other students got their samples from things like a cell phone or a door knob.  Knowing the "impeccable quality" of Steubenville's own water, we decided to take a trip down to the beautiful shores of the Steubenville River.  Since we only had ten minutes to collect the sample, we jumped into the car.  After a bumpy ride down to the Marina, we used a cotton swab to get our sample.  Using the correct technique, we rubbed the sample across the petri dish several times, rotating it as we did so.

Putting a lid on our sample, we stuck it in an incubator, which kept the sample at about 24 degrees Celsius (Stay tuned for the results).

In addition to collecting our environmental sample, we were given a specific (albeit unknown) bacteria to cultivate.  Adhering to Lister's Aseptic technique, we used a flame to disinfect our loop, then we took a dab of the unknown bacteria and inoculated one broth tube, two slants, and a petri dish (smearing it on all four sides of the petri dish in an attempt to create a pure colony).  The inoculated broth tubes, the slants, and the petri dish went into the 24 degree Celsius incubator.

<= Inoculation at work!!!  Spreadin' them germs around.

... And burning them germs =>

  Aseptic technique, ladies and      

  gentlemen.