only two more lab days and i will miss everyone so much. even though learning all of these new computer programs has been difficult and i now have all of this information in my head about how to functionally annotate genes in micobacteriaphages that i most likely will never use again. it has been a good semester and i am glad that i took this class.

I think that Morgan and I will be able to finally finish our functional annotations today. Some of our genes are actually kind of cool. One is a phage portal protein so it creates a hole in the nuclear envelope. While it has been fun to learn how to work these programs I am definitely glad to be almost finished.

all of the posters look amazing. dr adair and dr gibbon must have had a very difficult task in choosing which posters to print. i was nervous before we presented but i thought that it was good experience presenting an experiment and answering questions. it was good practice especially because i am so comfortable with all my classmates now that we have spent so much time together.

Today we were given time in lab to work on our posters for Baylor University Sponsors Scholars Week. Thankfully, Rachel is in my group and she has already made a scientific poster. My group was assigned a poster about our work in lab this semester. I have some mixed feelings about this because I understood calling and annotating genes but I am still a little fuzzy on finding the functions of the genes. Oh well this should be a good learning experience and I just have to accept that with two tests and this poster that I will not be getting much sleep next week.

Lab today was so confusing. I had no idea what to do. But everything was explained and now it’s all better.

We are starting something new in lab today! Now that we have found all the genes we get to try and find what they do. That is if phamerator ever finishes downloading updates.

I am so happy to be nearly done with annotations. We should finish in lab today and then we can move on to see what the genes do, which I personally find more interesting. It will be nice to come back from spring break to something new in lab. We have been annotating for so long that I have become very bored with Benedict. I know that our annotations need to be checked and rechecked because it is very important that we get it right. I just am very ready to move on.

I really enjoyed last Friday’s class. Everyone had interesting topics and the presentations themselves were entertaining to watch because most of the groups opted to do a skit in order to best present. Victoria and Alix did a really good job. I loved how they made theirs in the form of a news broadcast. Luke, Jolene, and Rynn’s project was nice because they did a civilized argument to present their information. I have to admit that I was a bit confused when they first put up the Starbucks image on the screen. I absolutely loved Bayless, Ester, and Kristie’s project. Being an anthropology minor, I found their powerpoint on other world religions’ ways of combining evolution and faith absolutely fascinating. Chelsea, Anna, and Meredith also did a very good job on presenting the opposing views that cause the creationism versus evolution debate. Sarah, Funmibi, and Jesus explained what exactly Intelligent Design is and then presented what they believe. I thought that this was a very good way to approach the assignment. Laura, Andrew, and Josh had a very entertaining way of presenting. Josh did very well playing Augustine of Hippo. Unfortunately, I had a quiz in my next class so I had to miss Frank, Jimmy, and Rayce’s presentaion but i have no doubt that it was amazing.
In lab we are just continuing to go over gene calls and make sure that the wierd calls were made for a very good reason.

When we first got this assignment I was worried. How can I write a paper and present a topic in class on a subject that I am still trying to figure out? As the project went on and I read more and more articles and arguments, I am beginning to decipher how my religious beliefs fit with the science that I study. They really aren’t as conflicting as I had previously thought that they were. I am very excited for class tomorrow. I will very interesting to see how others interpret this very broad assignment. I really like the topic that my group and I are presenting on. I find it very interesting and I hope that the rest of the class does too. If not, I am sorry for boring you all.
In lab we are doing more checking of the annotations and looking at the tougher calls. No offense to Benedict and I understand why all of our calls have to be checked and rechecked but I am definitely ready to move on to the next step of lab.

My group met and we all checked each others work. I believe that we had 4 total disagreements. 3 of them were with my calls. We are presenting what we came up with today in class. I am excited to see what everyone came up with and I am excited to move on from calling Benedict’s genes.