On Monday and Tuesday, I continued doing simple data analysis using Microsoft Excel. Towards the end of the day on Tuesday, I ended up finishing a large, complex chart that my PI needed for a grant proposal that he was going to be submitting in the following few days. I was glad I could help out with such a vital aspect of the lab's productivity and reputation.
On Wednesday, I revisited the butcher's in order to get my third rabbit head. Everything went as expected, except for the fact that they no longer had any white rabbits left. Our lab prefers white rabbits since all white rabbits are albino, meaning that they have no pigment in their irises. I called my PI to make sure that a black rabbit, they last rabbit they had in stock, was okay. After getting the affirmative, I went ahead and brought the rabbit back.
After doing the entire cross-linking and scanning procedure, a post-graduate in my lab taught me how to dissect the rabbits eye and cut out the cornea. This had to be done since they were trying to preserve the cornea so that it could be used in later studies. After cutting out the cornea, the vitreous body, lens, and even iris had to be removed or peeled off in order to isolate the cornea. After placing the removed cornea into a simple preservative, I washed the dissection tools and various other tools used in the cross-linking procedure (including the counter top of a lab table).
On Thursday, Ms. Rodrigue came to visit me at my lab. My PI and I talked to her about what I've been doing recently. When I explained the entire process of getting a rabbit head, she said that it was ultimately a very good experience for me, which I can't argue with!
We were originally going to do another rabbit head today, but since Ms. Rodrigue came to visit, I decided that might not be something she would have liked to see. So, we decided to postpone getting the rabbit to Friday.
On Friday morning, the first thing I did after waking up was call the butcher and make sure they had rabbits in stock. This was especially important today since I took the last rabbit they had in stock on Wednesday. Unfortunately, they did not have any left. So instead of doing what we had planned for today, I continued working on data analysis.
Here I am working on the dissected rabbit eye in order to remove the cornea:
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