Faeces is the final residue after the food is taken, processed by a large variety of enzymes in the digestive system, hence it plays an important role in determining the well-being of the digestive system of an animal, including the digestive and absorptive function of the system. In this experiment, we had to learn how to use the fresh faeces sample collected from an animal to do some analysis, which could tell whether the gastrointestinal tract and pancreas function properly and is infected by parasite.

Flotation is the first experiment. A little number of faeces was dissolved in the solution in a test tube. The top of the solution was then put under a microscope for observation, and we could not observe any parasite cyst. Next, we had to use the Sudan 3 and iodine, which are dyes for the carbohydrates and lipid, to see the carbo and lipid content in the faeces, and the result is that both carbo and lipids were very little in amount. Both of the experiments above show that the faeces sample was very healthy!

-Linda Lau

This month I had the midterm test for the microorganism course. Unlike the tests of other courses, this one is not paper-written and does not require us to memorize all the characteristics of every bacteria taught in class. Instead, every student was given a solution containing two different bacterial species, and we have to perform different tests with different reagents such as agars and  IMViC tests to identify the two bacterial species. It is challenging and stressful as well since one bacterial species equals half the marks of the test, so getting one wrong basically makes you fail the test.

-Ernest Yu