1. BIL 151 HHMI Coral Bleaching Lab
Brandon Emery
Paige Butler
Liz Lamb
Mike O’Brien

2. JOKE OF THE DAY!!!
Q: What kind of sandwich lives under the sea???

3. AND THE ANSWER IS…
A: Peanut butter and jellyfish!!!

4. Previous Week… Added Xenia colony to 100mL of water
Added .486g of caffeine to beaker
Every 15 minutes, tested zooxanthellae density by extracting water sample and placing it on the hemocytometer under the microscope
Recorded results for 45 minutes

5. Previous Week…
On the fourth attempt at testing, we took the 1mL water sample and placed it in the centrifuge to try and make the mixture more concentrated
.486g of caffeine proved to be too small of an amount to cause bleaching on the Xenia

6. Experimental Protocol Improvements
We plan on doubling the amount of caffeine to .972g per 100mL of water
If the mix turns out to kill the coral too quickly, the .972g will be the high value of caffeine, and we will use .729g, which is the middle value between .486g and .972g

7. Experimental Protocol Improvements
At the beginning and end of each lab session, we will perform a protein assay and check chlorophyll levels
These values will be added in conjunction to the values from the water samples to further prove the coral bleaching

8. Stay Tuned for Updates!!!