A day in the Gunsch lab is never JUST a typical day.
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The first thing I do and must do when I enter the building is to change my shoes. In my lab, it is mandatory to wear closed toe foot wear! It’s a safety procedure. If not, Dwina, our lab manager, warned me that she will make us wear these ridiculous boots!
The awesome reject boots you have to wear if you do not have closed toe shoes.
Once my beautiful tennis shoes are on, I go ahead and inoculate my E.coli (which is in the incubator) under the biological hood. Guess what you guys, I no longer despise the scent of the incubator! It still does smell terrible, but it doesn’t cause me to go into a seizure-like-mode due to the excruciatingly painful scent. Now, I voluntarily sniff the incubator and make comments such as, “Oh Brook, today the incubator smells a little salty” or “the incubator is awfully sweet scented today.”
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After this, what I do everyday varies. On days I need to plate my leachates, I usually wait until after lunch. This is so that I am sure that my E.coli reaches the lag phase (when the colony multiplies greatly). I then go under the biological hood and spend all afternoon swabbing E.coli, dipping filter plates, and parafilming. The next day, I examine the plates I made and check if there are any zones of inhibition. If I do not plate, I make sure our lab has a good stock of LB broth, LB agar, and R2A agar. If we are short, I go ahead make these. Also, I make sure my lab is spotlessly clean (no dirty dishes, awkwardly placed lab items, or dust). Shadowing Christina, Lindsey, Kauro, or Jenny (a graduate student in the same department) is something I do regularly and in the process I get to learn what they do, their projects in detail, and most importantly, they teach me techniques, methods, and procedures that I can learn for inspiration or so I can possibly help them.
Swirly agar remain. This is hardened agar stuck to the bottom of a flask that I need to get out before I can wash the dishes.
I’m really fortunate to be in the lab I am now. I have a caring PI (Dr.Gunsch), amazing students that help me (Christina, Lindsey, Kauro, and Jenny), and a funny lab partner I’m getting use to working with (Brook). Howard Hughes Precollege Program has past its half-way mark and the 15 of us are getting prepared for our posters. I don’t want to leave…My typical day in the Gunsch lab is so much more interesting that a day at school. Do you not agree? Where else would you be able to work with bacteria, smell a stinky incubator, get locked in a walking freezer, pipette constantly, watch graduate students work on the coolest projects ever, and conduct studies to help our human race live more environmentally friendly on our Earth?
