Research Experience of this First Semester

During this first six months of research I have learned many practical techniques and some other important things in a research working. Among the things I have learned are how to manage my time properly, how to work in a research lab, team work, and reading scientific literature and how to interpret and apply knowledge acquired in the research. Also I learned much about acarology and the diversity that is found in some genre, all related to the identification of this, etc. At the beginning of this research project I felt a little lost and did not know virtually anything about it, but as time passed, now I can understand that is a learning process because as compared to I knew before about acarology know I can talk more comfortably about it and I can explain many phenomenon about this wonderful world of mites. This for me was not a barrier as such but if it was a process by which I had passes when I start working in the project and now I’m very proud of what I’m doing and especially what I learned. Barriers as such in the draft were days that the university stop because we can’t work in the research, but anyway when the academic recess ends we continue working and replacing the spare time. The goals of the project for next semester would be continuing working on the collection and identification of the mites. We hope to collect and identify genera that have not yet been recorded in Puerto Rico which is the objective of this research and place the slides in the Acarology Collection at UPRH. I hope that next semester is as productive as this or more.

My blog visits

Comments about my experience of visiting the three bio-blog and the scientific aspects presented in each of the blogs.

First Blog: Lourdes D. Alicea Rodríguez

She is a junior student from the department of Industrial Biotechnology in the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez. Her research is about the antimicrobial activity in actinomycete found in hyper saline soils of Puerto Rico. The mentor of this research is Dr. Carlos Ríos Velázquez. She likes to work with the microorganism resistance to different antibiotics and actually she is working on the optimization of the DNA extraction methods of actinomycete. I like this research because I love everything related to microorganisms and another thing is that I can identify myself with Lourdes because like me she is in her third year of university. Been in touch with microorganism is very exciting that’s why I am doing my bachelor’s degree in microbiology, although I cannot deny that the behavior and neuroscience excites me and one of my dreams is obtain a PHD in “Behavior and Neuroscience.

Second Blog: Melvin J. Avilés Miranda

Is in the University of Puerto Rico at Cayey in the Chemistry major. He is working with Dr. Elba Reyes in the organic field investigating the active compound in the Puerto Rico Mormodica Charantia L. plant used commonly to reduce the hyperglycemic blood level in person that have diabetes II. Actually he is investigating the potentially bioactive compound of Momordica charantia “Cundeamor” infusion extract. This plant presented antidiabetic, antioxidant, antitumor, anticancer, antiflamatory effects. Melvin is using a solvent and soxhlet extraction technique to recover organic compounds from the leave of this plant. It was very interesting knowing all the effects of the plant Mormodes Charantia L. and it would be extraordinary being working with this plant and everything related with it.

Third Blog: Carlos Pasiche

Is investigating about which pH the media should to obtain bryophyte development with Dr. Inés Sastre. They are using bryophyte sporophyte’s from plants of Toro Negro. Their goal is the bryophyte conservation and they have used  Neckeropsis disticha as a model species for protocol enhancement. They want to reintroduced bryophyte to degraded ecosystems, to restore them and promote micro-ecosystem that supports bacteria, invertebrates, and protists. The role of Carlos Pasiche is the development of techniques that permit the multiplication of bryophyte with the maintenance of cultures, surface sterilizatiom and the preparation of nutrient media. He has an interest in paleobotany and in Evo Devo. I really like this blog and it was very interesting to read this type of research. I like the environmental style and the scientific integration, as the two go together. I think that more research should be done this way in the matter of trying to solve environmental problems.