Based on the material list that we submitted to NCESSE/ITA we can put a maximum of 15 eggs into the bottom well of the Type 2-Prime Well. We have until January 20thto tweak our experiment and adjust the number of eggs we put in the well for the actual experiment. We are thinking that we might want to decrease the number of eggs in the well in order to increase the possibility of survival. The top well will have 125 microliters of water. The bottom well will be filled with Tilapia eggs and water. Tilapia eggs are approximately 1 – 2 mm in diameter. Any space not taken up by the eggs in the bottom well will be filled with water. The top and bottom wells will be slid together approximately 10 hours into the flight. The only oxygen available to the Tilapia eggs after they hatch approximately 3 to 4 days after liftoff will come from the water. The total duration of the flight is expected to be 14 days. We want there to be a large enough sample size to have good results but a small enough number of eggs to maximize survival opportunity. Help us do the math. How many eggs should we use in our experiment? Click the link http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Q5PQH3N to provide suggestions or leave a comment below.
Type 2-Prime Wells
• overall volume in each Well: 125 micro liters (μl) = 0.125 cc = 0.125 cm3; a way to think about it—this corresponds to a cubical volume 0.5 cm on a side
• but the Wells are actually cylindrical in shape, with a diameter of 0.125 inches (0.318 cm), and length of 0.63 inches (1.6 cm)
just a few questions: my gut reaction is to go with fewer eggs. more eggs are going to deplete the oxygen faster.
-have you tried this experiment in 1g already? looks like you have enough time to do a mock run with some PCR tubes. i’d try it in 1g with various amount of eggs in each. you could get some answers even if you do the mock run for half or 3/4 the time.
-if you don’t want to do this, with fifteen wells you have a lot of room for variation. maybe something like put one egg in on well, two eggs in the next, etc all the way to fifteen egg in the last one.
-do you plan on oxygenating the water (bubble air through it) before you turn it in?
sorry if you’ve already answered these questions in a previous post! feel free to reply to this in using my e-mail address.