Bacteria is...cool? Everything we looked at was bacteria! There was green, black, even orange. We took a super clear microscope and there was even a special oil lens on it so that we could see the shapes of the bacteria. Amanda also gave me some handouts so that I can "decode" some bacteria in the future.
       Gavin, the boss, is usually doing some other experiments, but this time we all got to sit down and watch mushroom Youtube videos, and it was so fascinating. Go to Planet Earth on Youtube and you won't be disappointed!

 (November 30, 2011)     I was so excited to see my chia seed bottles and other grain/wheat seed bags when I came back from break, but sadly many of them did not make it. Bacteria got the best of them. Amanda, however, did end up making a "new batch" of the chia and grain seeds, so I was able to continue with the process.
      I started mixing the chia seed bottle with a bag of hemp (it was cut up into tiny pieces so it kind of looked like really small pieces of tree bark). I finally was able to actually touch something. Everything else I have been working with is really sensitive to bacterial infections so I normally can't touch anything, but this time I really had to dig in in order to mix my "chia meatloaf". This was easy since the chia bottle is a liquid. I put them into plastic rectangular form fitting containers (these had been bleached earlier to sanitize them). They were then closed up and labeled.
     I then started mixing the grain seed bags with the bag of hemp. This was a little more difficult because both these products are dry. Nonetheless, I finished mixing them, put them in the containers, and then labeled them.
     One of the main pieces that I learned was the sanitization of all the bags, bottles, and especially the vent system/hood that I always work under. Sanitizing everything is so important in order to decrease the chances of bacteria growing. I hope all my sanitizing pays off next week when I visit!