Preparation for Our Trip

We are so excited for our trip to Costa Rica to research leaf cutter ants! We leave on June 19th and return on June 29th.
The ants live within a fungus garden that produces a bacteria called pseudonocardia which has enabled them to survive for about 50 million years. In preparation for this trip we have done many things. We have had several meetings in which we have learned more about the ants, their environment, and how bacteria and antibiotics work and function. At one one of our meetings, we had the opportunity to Skype Dr. Curry: the scientist that first discovered the existence of pseudonocardia. We discussed with him why researching new antibiotic is so crucial to our developing society due to how quickly new antibiotics are expiring. At another one of our meetings, we performed an experiment in which we first washed our hands for set amounts of time, then swiped one of our fingers onto auger in a petri dish. Next, we placed the petri dish in an incubator and let the dish sit there for several days to see what kind of bacteria would grow. A few days later when we checked the petri dishes, we discovered that our skin multiple layers of bacteria because even after washing our hands for such long periods of time, bacteria still grew from wiping our fingers on the petri dishes. Through our multiple meetings, we have learned so much about the leaf cutter ants and the bacteria they live with that makes them so special. All the new information we have learned has made us so much for excited for new discoveries we will make in Costa Rica.

Sarafina and Catherine K