(November 9, 2011) First official day at Ecovative! My mentor Amanda showed me around the lab a little bit before we sanitized everything and started on our petri dishes. 

            She had mixed up a warm liquid consisting of MEA (malt extract agar) and I learned how to use an electronic test tube to fill in my petri dishes with the liquid. We worked under a vented hood that had to be completely sanitized at all times so that there would be no contamination in the petri dishes.

           After we let the liquid cool down, she cut into another petri dish that was made on October 31, 2011. This was completely white and fluffy, which meant that the mushroom was growing good and healthy. After they were cut into little pieces I transferred them into the petri dishes that had the media in them already. We then had to close and secure all the petri dishes, and I even labeled them with my initials, so they are officially mine now. Hopefully by next week I will see some white in the petri dishes, which means that everything is growing properly! 

          Amanda also talked about some other projects that Ecovative is working on right now. Maybe I will even think of a product that they can sell by the end of my time there!