Pre-Trials Week 1

 After being approved, we've begun working on our pre-trials. Because of limits in the delivery of our necessary supplies, we've started perfecting our basic husbandry using Daphnia magna from Mr. Seaquist's classroom culture instead of D. magna from Carolina Biological. Using this technique, we were able to image several D. magna. Although we were able to view their whole body, we still had difficulties imaging the heart due to time restraints and inexperience. Below are several images that we captured using the EVOS microscope.
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Additionally, we've solidified our feeding and mounting procedures. However, we are running into some problems with the viability of our culture that we are currently resolving. This may have been caused by the absence of compounds from our culture water or potentially excess light exposure. To remedy this, we are now using water from the original culture tank in Mr. Seaquist's room. We are also opting for natural window light for the time being.

Above is Peightyn, holding the original Daphnia magna culture, and Brynne, holding the lab notebook.