Lab Blab #8

Lab Blab #8
Our rainbow of Fumigation extraction samples rested overnight in their little Erlenmeyer flasks under the exhaust hood. The next day came the arduous task of pipetting 10 ml of clear solution from each one, to be read in the spectrophotometer at 600 nanometers. This is not an easy task! Forest soils are filled with debris and ‘floaters’, like little bits of humus. Jay wanted to do the pipettework, so I read the spectrophotometer and recorded the data. Dr. Bill was so interested in the results - intently studying the data sheets, comparing weights and spectral assessments. He encouraged Jay to be patient, and praised his work. At last Jay finished the tough stuff in record time, and off we flew to study for our final exams. Did I say that Jay tutors calculus? On Monday, Dr. Bill had already looked into the idea of filtering samples and had worked on correlations in the data. Thank goodness he knows what he is doing. It is one thing to work hands on, but analysis and statistics are so complex. Oh, well – that will be Spring Quarter. Thanks for listening. Now that we’re starting a new quarter, Dr. Bill will be researching DNA cloning in soil microbes. That will be most interesting. I can’t wait.