Max, God of Worms

For the last week and a half, I have been working in Dr. Lesilee Rose's lab. I'm being trained by a guy named Adam. Adam is very nice and laughs through his nose. He's taught me how to do a lot of the basic stuff around the lab. He's getting married this week.

I have a desk with a window. With a view! That's my desk lit by my window. I recently arrived on the perfect lunch: a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with a mason jar of tea.

The Rose lab studies developmental biology. Specifically, we study biological control of polarity during cell division. It ultimately plays an important role in body development, but we're concerned with things like mitotic spindles and protein gradients. Our lab is a "worm lab", which means that our studies focus on a worm called C. elegans. It is a tiny, near-microscopic worm that is grown on petri dishes.

C. elegans is a model organism like mice, fruit flies, and E. coli. Biologists extrapolate principles discovered in these organisms to understand more complex organisms. Much of the work in the lab revolves around the worms. I have learned to make plates and to handle the worms. I've also been making gels and running proteins. Adam pointed out that you could drink 90% of the chemicals in our lab and be fine. Biology: 1. OChem: 0.

Our lab uses hundreds of plates every week, so we have to make up new ones almost every day. First I measure some digested protein powder and agar into a large flask, pour in water, mix it up and put the flask into the autoclave for an hour and a half. We let it cool for another hour. As soon as it's not scalding I thread a sterile tube into the flask, through a dispenser machine, and back out onto the counter. I take stacks of empty plastic petri dishes and position the nozzle while the dispenser squirts the media into each. The machine measures with rhythmic pumping, so imagine holding a nozzle that is rhythmically squirting hot gooey liquid over and over and over again.

We handle the worms under microscopes with platinum wire picks using sterile technique. We can use the scooping method or the sticking method. I use the latter. I get some bacterial goo on the spatula and then dab the worms. With luck and a little practice they stick on. I can even get a bunch of worms on the pick at a time, writhing in a sticky ball. When it has too many, the worms keep falling off every time it's dabbed. My record so far is 19.

Thus, I am God of the worms, reigning doom with impunity on their little jelly world. Just like "the claw", I choose who will go and who will stay. Sometimes they go to a better place with a virgin bacteria colony and lots of space to lay eggs. Sometimes they get flamed till my platinum wire glows white hot.