I have been extremely busy as of lately, and apologize for not posting earlier.
Week 5 was shortened due to fall break. Therefore we only were able to work in the lab one day. We finished the setup and alignment for the blue laser that day. Below is a picture of the blue laser final set up. It is very similar to the previous table set up, however we got rid of the beam splitter.
Week 6 saw a slight set back in the lab. Over break, due to miscommunication between Brian and Elias, our worm stock was never harvested. We came back from break to an empty incubator. All our previous stocks had been discarded! We began a new stock, but had to wait until later in the week to collect any data on the worms.
Week 7 was a very productive week in the lab. Eli and I developed a good system to collect data with using the blue laser. Wearing the safety goggles makes it more difficult to view the worm and also the laser beam itself. One of us starts the PicoScope software, and then quickly walks over and helps the other find the worm and get the diode positioned so the diffraction pattern can be seen.
Below is a picture of what the PicoScope data looks like when we collect it. The sinusoidal peaks are the data we are trying to achieve. As the worm moves around in the laser light it changes the diffraction pattern that turns out on the screen as peaks in the graph. We can then use those peaks to analyze to motion of the worms. The flatline sections (none pictured below) in the data are when the worm is not being illuminated by the laser and therefore creates change in the diffraction pattern.
