Hello readers! Everything I will be putting on the poster is now done, yay! I won’t say it was an easy process, but it is super fulfilling to be done. I feel incredibly accomplished and proud of myself for completing a research project. This week was pretty monotonous, though. 90% of this week was working on data and putting it on a poster. Lots of podcasts/music and looking at a screen. Much of research, I’ve learned is looking at a computer screen. Much of my personal research, too, was looking at pictures of isopods. As much as I love isopods, looking at so many of them in such a short timeframe gets a bit overwhelming. Once again, thanks to help from my lovely colleagues I was able to get it done in time and some of it I was even able to run statistics on! My results were the complete opposite of what I had expected, however. It was a tad disheartening to not see the results I wanted to see, but that’s all part of science. I always say that a negative or insignificant result is still interesting and while that is very true, it is still hard to follow my own advice. My mentors are very encouraging, however, and got me to think about alternative explanations for what I saw. It was a quick project that was run short, so in the timeframe I had I would say the results are still pretty cool! Each summer OIMB holds the annual ‘invertebrate ball’ where the students get to dress up as their invertebrate of choice! Some of the REUs decided to go as a salp chain (this week’s species of the week). We made quite an entrance as we were physically stuck together as salps would be. Turned out to be a very fun night of dancing with some fun inverts! This week is a short blog, as most of what I was doing was summed up in three words: looking at screens. This next (and last!) week consists of ending and cleaning up all remaining projects, doing a poster session for the community at OIMB, and some outreach for the community of coos bay. So on that note, I will see you next week for the last time!
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Welcome back! This week is going to be a bit different. Due to fast approaching deadlines, I got too distracted with trying to finish all my experiments and didn’t write my blog as my week went. As such, I have no idea what I did each day, so I’m going to give you all a long mess of what generally happened this week, enjoy! I knew that posters were due soon, but we all didn’t realize how soon that really was. I have to wrap up all experiments I want to get data from to put on my poster and analyze it by next Monday (edit: it got extended *whew*. A draft is due Wednesday and the final draft due Friday. This gives me enough time to actually get data!) On my list to do is end my light experiment, which will require getting pictures of all the isopods and stage their chromatophores. I realized my other chromatophore experiment I was going to do doesn’t really make sense, which is unfortunate I realized so late. I might still do it, but I need to revisit the plan (with all of the time I have) and make sure I’m actually testing what I want to test. However, I looked at a paper I had looked at in the beginning of the program and the author had looked at diurnal changes in chromatophores. Seeing as I’m keeping my isopods in artificial light patterns, I thought it could be interesting to see if they will have a similar response. This means I have to come in every 3 hours for 40 hours straight. Is it possible to be too committed to your job? (edit: Well, I didn’t last the whole 40 hours. I made it about 30, which is still pretty impressive. Word of advice, if you need to do a timepoint experiment get help or you will be forced to sleep in 2 hour increments for 30 hours.) On a better note, I started a diet experiment with the babies! The set-up is amazing, a huge improvement from what I did with the light experiment. It’s much more organized; the only problem is the babies are small and they are hard to see on the black background. I won’t get results while I am here, but they will come! The poster is coming along as well. I really like making posters, it indulges all my aesthetic needs. It is really fun to put all of your work together concisely in one spot, and make it look really neat and pretty. It is going to feel really satisfying when it’s done; to actually see all the work I’ve done completed and in one spot.
That’s the recap! This weekend is crunch time. The program is coming to a close, and thus everything in my experiment is rushing to a close. This time next week, posters will be done and experiments will be over. On that note, I will see you next week! |
AuthorWelcome! I grew up in Livermore, California and I’m about to enter my fourth and final year at University of California, Davis as an Evolution, Ecology, and Biodiversity major. As far as science goes my interest are in marine ecology and studying how the organisms that reside in the ocean interact with each other and their environment. I keep this as broad as possible because I am still exploring what is out there in terms of research and what I’m interested in. I heard about REUs in general from a fellow marine biologist back in Davis, so I decided to consider them for this summer. I applied to a ton of places and kept my fingers crossed I could get into one, and I did! Being able to conduct my own research was a highlight of REUs that sparked my interest and I’m very excited to be able to participate and be around like-minded individuals for 9 weeks. Archives |