This morning I assisted (more like observed) Anthony setup the DDW3 experiment. This is my first lab experience, other than Biology 110, so everything is new to me.

Anthony is using Virginia Gold #1 tobacco and Columbia Arabidopsis (mustard) seeds in four types of water; DI, DDW, tap water, and the final sample based on the Vienna Standard Mean Ocean Water (VSMOW) standard.

  • first we used centrifuge tubes to hold the water we would be putting into the cuvettes. One tube each of DI, DDW, tap water and D2O (for mixing later).
  • next Anthony set up eight cuvettes on a rack and put five Arabidopsis seeds each in four cuvettes and five tobacco seeds each in the remaining four cuvettes. Counting out the Arabidopsis seeds was very difficult.
  • 3 ml of DI water was added to one Arabidopsis and one tobacco cuvette. This was repeated for the DDW and tap water. For the final sample of each seed type we added 2999.5ul of DDW with .42ul of D2O. This would be the simulated VSMOW. Anthony calculated the correct proportion based on the standard of 155.76 ppm of D2O per H2O.
  • photos were taken by Anthony and posted on his notebook.