September 13th, 2011
Upon coming back to the lab after five days, I found that the bacteria had overgrown and the sample was no longer useable. Instead I had to use a throat swab sample growing in another Petri dish as a replacement and then transferred some of the contents using the Aseptic technique onto two slides. I then heat-fixed the smears using a Bunsen burner before staining it with safarin, which needed a minute each to dry. I washed off the excess stain with water and wiped off the excess water with bibulous paper before putting the slides away. I also received an unknown I must identify, known to me as sample E. I used the Aseptic technique to transfer the sample into two test tubes for my use before returning the original sample and putting my own in the incubator.
September 15th, 2011
The next lab day I checked my unknown sample and saw it was growing before returning it to the incubator. I re-examined my overgrown Petri dish that now belongs in the refrigerator to find a series of cracks where there was no bacteria, which I found interesting. I also examined my slides from the last lab period and could not see the bacteria until immersion oil was used on the microscope lens. Then I could see all the particles made visible by the stain.
