Sunday, December 4, 2022

How to Make Homemade Soap just 10 min, Even If You're a Beginner

 

            How to Make Homemade Soap just 10 min, Even If You're a Beginner


Easy Production of Soap

Ingredients required: 01. Caustic soda (NaOH) 50 g 02. 120 ml of water 03. 240 ml of coconut oil 04. A fairly large bowl 05. A beater


How to make:

First take an empty bowl, add 120 ml of water and 50 g of caustic soda and mix well with a beater. Always use a glove when mixing. Add 240 ml of coconut oil to the well mixed mixture and mix well again with a beater for about 10 minutes. Then pour into molds and keep for 24 hours. After 24 hours the prepared soap can be removed from the mold.

Homemade soaps in this way with the use of natural coconut oil, is high quality. It costs only $ 0.2

Watch the video below

How to make soap at home

Thursday, April 21, 2022

 

How to culture Drosophila melanogaster

 

INTRODUCTION

Drosophila melanogaster is a tiny, common insect that lives near rotten or unripe fruit. It is used for research in genetics and behavior for more than a century. Drosophila melanogaster goes through a complete metamorphosis, which comprises an egg, larva, pupa, and then emergence as a flying adult. Drosophila melanogaster eggs are not fertilized immediately after mating with male flies. During mating, female Drosophila melanogaster receive and store sperm in their sperm storage reservoirs, known as the seminal receptacle and spermatheca. Drosophila melanogaster sperm are "giant sperm," measuring 1.76 mm in length, 300 times longer than human sperm. Sperm can be stored for up to two weeks inside the bodies of female flies, with those stored in the seminal receptacle being used first, followed by those stored in the spermatheca. Sperm and egg fusion occurs only when the egg is going to be laid. The entire sperm penetrates the egg at the anterior pole, and the embryo's growth is seen in the gut area. The chorion is an opaque outer membrane that coats the egg's translucent and chitinous vitelline membrane. A pair of filaments protrude from the egg's anterodorsal surface. This pair of filaments keeps the egg from sinking into soft food where it might be placed. Drosophila melanogaster's lifespan changes based on its surroundings. When the conditions for survival are favorable, they can live for more than 100 days. Nonetheless, Drosophila melanogaster females have a life span of 26 days, and males have a life span of 33 days.

The temperature has a significant impact on the length of a Drosophila melanogaster's life cycle. The easiest way to grow flies is also at room temperature. However, the optimum rearing condition is a temperature of 25°C and 60% humidity. According to our experiment in room temperature generation time is 10 days from egg to adult.

MATERIALS REQUIRED FOR 11 FLY CULTURE BOTTLES:

2.9 grams Agar

4.8 grams Sugar

5 grams Corn flour

9.6 grams Dried killed yeast

515 ml Water

15.5 ml Nipagin solution

Beaker

11 dry McCartney Bottles

Cotton wool


PROCEDURE: 

1. Preparation of artificial diet to culture Drosophila melanogaster

Add Agar (2.9 g), Sugar (4.8 g), Cornflour (5 g), Dried killed yeast (9.6 g), and Water (515 ml) into a beaker and boil the mixture until it gets light yellowish colour. While boiling the mixture should stir well. After the mixture gets light yellowish colour, turn off the Bunsen burner. Then stir the mixture carefully and add Nipagin solution (15.5 ml) to it. After that pour the equal amounts of prepared media into 11 McCartney Bottles and allow to get cool and solidify. It should fill the culture bottles 1/5th to 2/5th full. (The culture bottles containing artificial diet should plug with non-absorbent cotton wool for future use.)

 

2. Culture Drosophila melanogaster in the artificial diet containing McCartney Bottles

Collect 6 to 8 Adult Drosophila flies (male and female) from the natural environment and introduce them into 3 to 4 culture bottles containing an artificial diet (2 flies for each culture bottle).  Close the bottles with flies and artificial diet with the use of muslin cloth. Then allow the flies to lay eggs inside these culture bottles. After the adults emerge from eggs you can transfer those adult flies to other artificial diet containing McCartney Bottles to avoid overcrowding in culture bottles. Observe the life stages and time taken for each life stage of Drosophila melanogaster


OBSERVATION:

At room temperature of 29°C, Drosophila melanogaster can complete its life cycle in this artificial diet within 10 days. More generations can be produced within this artificial diet very quickly. Therefore this artificial diet is suitable for Drosophila melanogaster culture. Small larvae can be seen in the culture media after the eggs hatch. In the larval stage, there are three instars. In addition, as the larvae feed they disrupt the smooth surface of the media and so by looking only at the surface one can tell if larvae are present. After the third instar, larvae move up the culture vial to pupate. All organs degenerate (histolysis) and reorganize into adult shapes throughout the pupal stage (metamorphosis). Adult flies emerge from pupal cases 10 days following egg-laying.

Two days after the introduction of flies to the culture bottle, female flies will lay eggs.

Two days after egg-laying- the eggs will hatch and produce the first instar larva

Three days after egg-laying - the second instar larva can be observed.

Four to five days after egg-laying- the third instar larva can be observed

Seven days after egg-laying- Pupa can be observed

Ten days after egg-laying- Eclosion (adults emerge from the pupa case).









Tuesday, April 19, 2022

How to culture Paramecium sp.

Paramecium is the most common of the ciliated protozoans. They occur abundantly in waters containing decaying vegetable matter since their food consists mainly of bacteria that decompose dead organic matter. Paramecia are oval in shape and quick moving. Paramecium has a very distinctive slipper-like appearance. Small size, ranging from 25μm to 300 μm. Presence of many surface cilia which are used for swimming and collecting food. They have a semi-transparent appearance and the interior nuclei and food containing vacuoles are readily seen as small globules under the microscope.  They are barely visible to the naked eye, usually white or clear in color, and can reproduce both sexually and asexually. When conditions are favorable, Paramecia reproduce asexually by transverse division at a rate of up to five times daily.

Paramecium culture

Materials:   Dry straw/ hay

                     Dechlorinated water

                     Aquarium water

                     Rice/ crushed biscuits

                     2 beakers (200 ml and 800 ml)

Procedure:

Take 200 ml of dechlorinated into a beaker. Then add dry straw into that same beaker. After three weeks, take a drop of water from that beaker and observe under the microscope to check the growth of Paramecium. After that take aquarium water into another beaker and transfer water with paramecium and dry straw already prepared into that aquarium water-filled beaker. Add Some crushed biscuits and rice into the culture beaker and keep for another two weeks to get maximum growth of Paramecium. The Paramecium will eat bacteria growing off of the food (dry crushed biscuits and rice) which have been added to the culture medium

Dechlorinated water and dry hay in an 200ml beaker 

After three weeks, Transfer Culture water into an 800ml beaker that contains aquarium water 


Cultured Paramecium under the microscope (100×)


Click here for locomotion video of Paramecium sp.

Wednesday, March 16, 2022

Ethogram of guinea pig grooming behavior

Ethogram of guinea pig grooming behavior

Grooming is the act of cleaning. The front teeth, tongue, and back claws of Guinea pigs are used to groom themselves. They demonstrate many grooming techniques, including self-grooming, in order to maintain their bodies clean and maximize their chances of survival. Grooming can also provide psychological benefits by removing dust, debris, and parasites from its fur. Because the body surface serves as a temperature regulator, a sensing organ, a protective device, and a moisture balance.

Ethogram of guinea pig grooming behavior contains the following steps 

Ø  Licking its front feet

Ø  Wiping its face

Ø  Sitting on its haunches

Ø  Wiping its nose

Ø  Bring both front feet over the head from behind the ears all the way to the tip of its nose

Ø  The body is cleaned with teeth and tongue back and forth

Ø  Shake all over as it to remove loose hairs and fur that’s still on its body

Figure 1: Licking front feet   


  Figure 2: Wiping the face   


Figure 3: Sitting on haunches  


Figure 4: Wiping nose                                     

 

Figure 5:  Bringing front feet over the Head from behind the ears  

 

Figure 6: Bringing front feet behind the ears to the tip of the nose 

 Figure 7: The body is cleaned with tongue and teeth


Figure 8: Shaking body to remove loose fur

Click here for a video 








Wednesday, February 23, 2022

Preparation and maintenance of a pond for carp farming in Sri Lanka

Preparation and maintenance of a pond for carp farming in Sri Lanka

For natural aeration of pond water, the pond should be oriented east to west. The length to width ratio of the pond should be 2: 1 and the depth of the pond should be 1.5 m. The pond wall should be 3 m wide.

In order to prepare a pond, eradication is required. There are two types of eradication: physical eradication and chemical eradication. Physical eradication is achieved by Sun drying for 2-3 weeks until the formation of soil cracks.

Bleaching powder (25g/m2) is used to do chemical eradication. The pond bottom should be thoroughly wetted before bleaching and then bleach for 1-3 days. Then fill the pond to 12 inches with water and after 2 days, water should be released to minimize the bleaching powder toxicity, and water should be filled to 48 inches level again. As another chemical eradication method, can use bleaching powder with urea (1g/m2 urea and after 24 hrs 12g/m2 bleaching powder). The ponds should be free from aquatic feeds, wild fish, and predators. Ammonia 25g/m2 is sometimes used to kill wild fish like stinging catfish. Lime (50 g/m2) is a good pesticide to use.

Fertilization has a bigger role in semi-intensive carp farming. Fertilizers might be inorganic or organic. Organic fertilizer consists of fresh cow manure, poultry manure, green leaves, and compost. For early fertilizing of ponds to grow planktons, cow dung (750g/m2) or poultry manure (250g/m2) could be used. Auxin and cytokinin hormones are found in fresh cow dung and are beneficial to phytoplankton growth. Use 1g of TSP (powder form) and 3g of urea per m2 in combination with organic fertilizers for quick results. Weekly manuring is advised if necessary. Before applying fertilizer water level in the pond should be 1.5m and then the water level in the tank should be gradually raised.

After two weeks there is a significant change in color of the pond water (immediately dark brown and then yellow after that green), and after two weeks, excellent culture ponds can be obtained by this method. The visibility of the Secchi disk should be between 25 and 30 cm. Plankton density must be 20-25cm in brood and brood ponds and 45cm in brooders ponds. The pH of the medium can be adjusted by adding lime. Eichhornia sp. can also grow in corner of the ponds to absorb excess ammonia produced by excess feed, however, as Eichhornia sp. is an invasive alien species, that should be planted in small quantities.