A grey day, but the mood is still on top

For the crew there is always something to do and the technician and the chief of technical instruments are impatient to get the ROV up and run.

William who has been working all day counting bacteria, is out on deck to breathe some fresh air. The temperature is warm though the weather is grey.
Yesterday evening we went down to the lab-area to have a look at what the microbiologists were doing. Here follows a resume:

From the tests taken from 1000 m deep earlier this day, the microbiologists will analyze the result and count bacteria. They are interested to find out if methane gas stimulate to more cell activity. Today's tests and the following analyzes are to check the equipment, but also to get a sort of reference point for later analyzes, data which can be used as a comparison base. We have also just heard that Espen N. Vaular, who earlier was analyzing the water didn't find any methane gas.......

Back to the microbiologists analyzes..... First they have to take the test result through a treatment where the purpose is to separate out the bacteria and to protect them. They do this separating in an instrument that looks like a bucket, with help of water it creates a under pressure which makes the fluid flow through a filter.

First they put the test result on a small filter paper with some distillated water. The distillated water helps to distribute the bacteria over the whole filter. The filter is an inorganic membrane, more specific an 0,2 macro meter thick metal netting. This filter filtrates out the most common bacteria while virus gets through. Then they put on a protection filter. When they have finished separating the testresults through the filter they add a dye called DAPI, which will bind itself to DNA. The dye makes the DNA light up when it becomes irradiated with UV-light. After 10 minutes they remove the dye by rinsing with a sterile buffer. The sterile buffer is a bacteriabuffer that protects the cells from osmotic shock. As we described earlier the bacteria is taken up from 1000 m deep, where the salinity, temperature and pressure is different from the surface. Afterward the filter air dries and they put them with a protection oil on a microscope slide. The oil is a liquid that makes the cell wall become harder and more resistance. Finally they put a protection glass over the microscope slide and the testresults are ready for microscopeing.

When Frida-Lise Daae and William Hocking are examining them in a microscope we see a starry sky of lightning bacteria. Because they disappear quickly when they are exposed for UV-light, William takes picture that he can use later on.

As we are watching the "starry sky" we hear a strange sound coming out of the room beside. It's an autoclaves which is specially developed for sterilization in the laboratory. With an autoclave you can get a temperature up to 121°C. There are few organisms that survive such high temperature (except from hyperthermophile) and the water becomes sterilized enough for the need of the micro biologists.