The Lessons in Inconclusive Data

My name is Robert Dawson, and I am a third-year student at the SRJC pursuing my associate’s degree in biology, after which I hope to transfer to a 4-year university and obtain my undergraduate degree in molecular biology. This summer gave me the incredible opportunity to intern at the Bodega Marine Lab, during which I was able to have many great experiences and meet many wonderful people. The specific lab that I worked in, the CHANGE lab run by Dr. Alyssa Griffin, focuses its work on nearshore blue carbon cycling and sediment pore water carbonate chemistry, a topic that I knew nothing about before this internship. 

My friend and cohort Miles, who worked in the same lab as me, was in a similar boat. However, under the guidance of our amazing mentors Liyu and Ana, I was able to not only build my understanding of the subject but also got the chance to run a completely new experiment with them in order to test some aspects of treatment efficacy for their future work, as well as learn all kinds of things about professional life, the work at BML, and what it means to be a scientist.

The project that I worked on this summer focused on whether or not UV sterilization could be as effective as mercuric chloride poisoning at preserving dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) conditions in pore water samples that the lab uses. Due to the nature of the research, samples need to be stabilized in the conditions that they are in when they are gathered, as microbial life can alter DIC content during storage if they are not poisoned. Mercuric chloride is used for this purpose, and it is extremely effective, but it is some nasty stuff. We were given the task of designing an experiment that tests UV for sterilization purposes, a comparatively safer alternative. It was a great experience to go through the protocol planning process, along with troubleshooting the issues and interpreting the results we got. The data itself was inconclusive, likely the result of a variety of human and experimental errors which we did our best to identify as a group. By the end of it, we had a new theoretical plan ready to go if we were to run the experiment again. I can honestly say that I was ready to go and do it all over, but at that point the internship was ending as all things must. I settled for the inconclusive data, as it was the process of getting that data which was the valuable part anyway.

Overall, my experience as an intern at BML this summer, which included a variety of other things from professional development meetings to field work, was amazing. It can be intimidating to begin the professional side of your career, as the vast majority of my experiences in STEM have been in the classroom. This internship changed that, giving me the chance to get some hands-on experience in some of the things I am hoping to do for the rest of my life. Everyone I met was so nice and welcoming, as well, which was another great aspect of the internship. It was truly a wonderful experience, one that I am so glad is offered so that young scientists such as myself can get some valuable experience before even completing our undergraduate degrees. I’d like to thank our mentors, Liyu and Ana, once again, along with the entire BML community that welcomed us and made this summer not only extremely educational, but very fun as well.

About the Program: 

The SRJC-BML Internship Program provides summer research opportunities for Santa Rosa Junior College students at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.

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