Mites are so In Love with my baby fungus

Yesterday I had taken some time in the lab to observe my fungi culture plate.

Suddenly I saw something special under the light microscope (4x or 10x objective lens? I forgot already...). I thought it was some kind of special structure of the fungus. However, it moved!

Click play button to see this creature......

OMG... it ate my baby fungus!

It was the mite... with 8 legs oh.... so it was not an insect... some kind like spider?

Seems like it liked my fungus very much... so yummy huh?

and actually, there was not only ONE mite... but many mites!

For your information, I did not need to include this mite in my FYP, it actually contaminated my plates.... because it would carry the fungus on its body while moving and brought them over to other non-contaminated agar plates.

Although I had already sealed the plates with parafilm tape, somehow the mites still managed to trace its favourite food and penetrated inside!

I had stored this agar plate for about two weeks time. It was the Carnation Leaf Agar (CLA), the water agar with carnation leaves.
Those mites looks transparent white dot by naked eyes, yes, they are microscopic, but we could spot them if view carefully.

There are many more I didn't point out...

Field Trip

Last Wednesday, 12.08.09, I went on a real field trip to MARDI and a private paddy field, by the yellow Ford Ranger owned by School of Biological Science, USM.

It was a truly hot day, with hot hot sun. We went at 8.45am, across the Penang bridge to Seberang Perai. Our first destination was MARDI, went collected many many samples so that I wouldn't need to come again (yes, I hope there wouldn't be another round to collect sample, because it means I wasted my time to repeat the procedure).

me, with the yellow Ford Ranger, posed in front of MARDI

an unknown insect captured by me in MARDI

a big puffball found lying on the ground in MARDI

if not mistaken, it is an adult Green stink bug, Acrosternum hilare

resource: http://ipcm.wisc.edu/WCMNews/tabid/53/EntryId/360/Stink-Bugs-in-Corn-and-Soybeans.aspx

there is an insect among the paddy seeds, could you spot it?

I think it's a rice bug

the insects were queue-ing up again...

Don't be mistaken that I am doing FYP on insects haha... Personally like photography and hence enjoy taking macro photos of these insects while collecting samples hehe...

Quality of these photos aren't as good as those taken by DSLR, but it's the maximum performance I have tried out okay.... hehe

and ya... I also edited the photos using nEO iMAGING software. It's quite easy to use oh.... haha... compared to Photoshop =p

After MARDI, we went to a private paddy field at the road side and continued taking some samples. It was my first experience to wear a pair of boots and stepped into the paddy field... o.O very muddy and it was hard to pull my leg out @@

the story behind this photo was, I was soaking my legs/boots in the mud...

It was a fun field trip, despite of the heatness. We went back to USM at about 1pm ~~~

MARDI Trip

As title, I went on a trip to MARDI, which situated at Bertam, Penang. Hehe...

It was my first time to visit MARDI, and in fact the trip was free of charge as I was going with my school.

Weird, a Microbiology undergraduate visit MARDI?

well... don't forget that I'm currently having my FYP title related to Paddy. That trip was actually specially made for Agrobioloy students, and I was just following along. We went there to attend a brief talk regarding Paddy plantation and the diseases related. After that, we had a tea session then were brought around to see the real plants and the experiments they were doing.

Hehe... I was bad that I prefer taking photographs to listening the explanations given lolz. However, I did learn something that day =)

huhu.... the so-called baby of "bena perang" = Brown planthopper that attacks paddy ~

err... If i'm not mistaken haha...

this was the closer look.... they were queue-ing up?

another photo... adult Brown planthopper

a closer look... huhu...

FYP - paddy seed + fungus

In the last post in Chinese language, I mentioned that I was supposed to join the field trip this morning to places in Penang to collect samples for my Final Year Project. However, since the van couldn't fit so many of us, 3 of us were not able to join this time.

I was quite down as I was expecting the trip haha...

but well, like what my friend said, since I was not yet well-prepared, it should be a positive outcome for me. In fact I was not ready yet to start my FYP. I haven't studied the materials I should know.

Oh ya... my project title was about Paddy seed. I have to do a research on fungi that are associated with the diseases found on paddy seed. So, basically I need to understand more on paddy and fungus; It's more to agrobiology than microbiology, I felt.

So, I should not be down for not going field trip today! huhu.... so, I should start on reading more and more books/journals etc, on plant pathology, seed-borne diseases, fungi grow on paddy seed etc. I am so blur about them now... because I didn't have much knowledge on these.

Okay, I will look forward to the field trip coming next.... !

"被遗弃" T_T

懒洋洋的星期日，一大清早七点就从温暖的被窝中爬起来，带着期待的心情吃早餐，然后以一身“探险”般的打扮匆匆忙忙地走到大学。。。

事实上我是迟到了五分钟，但这不是被“遗弃”的原因。当我到达聚集的地点，我很不好意思地向负责带领我们九位（没错的话）学生的讲师说对不起，出乎意料地，她说我不能跟着一起去。

有点觉得被玩弄的感觉。。。我还以为她特地开玩笑要吓一吓我的。
怎料，她过后带着有点歉意的口吻向我抱歉，今天真的不能跟随这一趟 field trip 去槟城各个地方收集稻米作为实验的样本。

原因是原本计划能驾驶生物系学院的大型货车(van)，但是现在只剩下小型的，载不下这么多人。所以她只能牺牲我和另外两位系友（我们三位的毕业论题不是直属这位讲师的）。。。

好失望啊。。。


没有办法咯。。。在那待了不到五分钟就慢慢地走路回家。
经过商店的时候顺便买了一份星洲日报，封面放着一张引人注目的车祸照片，写着“古来恐怖车祸5死2伤”。

受害人是一辆轿车，被两辆罗里“夹攻”。。。
很无辜，车主把轿车停在交通灯之前，前面则停着一辆载泥的罗里，后面停着一辆运铁的罗里，却无缘无故竟然撞上这辆轿车，还压在它上面，向前冲。。。再撞上前面的载泥罗里！

更无辜的是，其中一位死者是为别人托顾的1余岁幼童。。。
其他6人是一家人。。。

想象这个情景。。。真的很恐怖。。。
就算我们没有去撞人，别人也有可能来撞你。。。
马路就是这么一个无情的地方。。。

down... sigh...

and... Rest In Peace, our very great director in Malaysia, Yasmin Ahmad....

I'm sure everyone of us had watched the Petronas Advertisements directed by her... every single of them conveys clear message behind the simple stories... which inspired people to think and remind us about the importance of family and racial integration.

hereby I embeded an advertisement from Youtube, which was once the advertisement of Petronas during CNY 2006....

FYP

One week of the 5th Semester of my entire University life has already passed. FAST... I'm already a 3rd year student !!!!

sigh... mix feeling

Had been thinking the night and morning on the 3rd day of new semester, for choosing topics for my FYP.

FYP = Final Year Project

a term which is so soooo familiar to final year student, let's see how will it torture me then.

From 54 topics... each of us needed to search for 3 favourite topics, and only given about one day to think, crazily.

Many topics seemed like aliens to me, lolz... how to choose? and how to fight with other coursemates with better results? Yes, of course, the better result, the bigger chance you can get your first choice. Most probably, I won't get any of my 3 choices.... anyhow, I must strive hard to finish the whatever topic given!

I must not fail any subject in this final year or I will not graduate in time!