January+2012+Z

__January 2012__ For the first few weeks of this semester, we were unsure where this second semester was going to go, or what I would be researching now that my schedule needed to change. Therefore, for a few weeks, I was helping out with pick up projects around the lab and helping Aprell with transformations and plating.

__Monday January 30th__ Today, we decided that I will be coming in on Saturdays to do research, and I will be working with the zebra fish to test the effects of anxiety on zebrafish simulated with the use of caffeine. I will be doing research and experiments in order to write a lab that the local high schools will be able to do to test the effects of caffeine. Today, I started with a few papers that Aprell gave to me. The first paper was general background information ab out cafffeine and its effects on humans. The second paper was a write up of an experiment, Caffeine-Induced Effects on Heart Rate in Zebrafish Embryos and Possible Mechanisms of Action: An Effective System for Experiment in Chemical Biology (Rana et al 2010), that was done to test the effects of caffeine on the heart rate of zebrafish. I will be reading these papers and designing an experiment to do on Wednesday.