They kicked this week off with a very righteous weekend of touring the Oregon aquarium and Hatfield facilities. I was especially excited to broaden my understanding of ongoing research from a different institution and learning more about the Oregon coast. The faculty and interns gave us a very well-rounded introduction to the ongoing efforts being made in sustaining the local oyster population. Something that may escape an Angeleno like myself, is that marine life not only plays a role in the human food chain but it also plays an instrumental role in the ecosystem. When considering how many oysters live throughout the Oregon coast and that they are a keystone species, if they were to one day extinct, the ecosystem could suffer dramatically. This knowledge helped put the research being conducted at Oregon State University in focus and highlighted the importance of the research pertaining to oyster sustainability. Aside from the insight on the research being conducted, it was also great to go through the aquarium and learn more about the marine life across Oregon. It was great to see octopus throughout the aquarium, but it was surprising to see that puffins are also a species common in this area as well! I absolutely adore puffins. For years I would eat my Puffins cereal and think I could only see them in real life if I visited the arctic, but all I had to do was go to Oregon. The following day we lounged by Hall lake, which is a lake situated right next to a dune! The scenery was epic. All-and all the weekend was a good way to unwind and bring my focus back to my week’s research. Troubleshooting had proved to have been one of the more challenging aspects of the project. With almost a week and a half dedicated to just trying to figure out the right annealing temperature and primer sets to set off my reaction I was becoming less and less sure that my samples would ever work. My persistence panned out, and I could get my PCR to work. I needed to get some new reagents to get my reaction working again. One aspect that this research opportunity has given me is the opportunity to wrestle with my challenges instead of just setting my issues down for someone else to deal with them. I can hone in on my issues and plan out a constructive approach. When I hit a point that I am not sure of what my next step should be, I fall back on either Kara or Svetlana (maybe Nicole if I just want to throw darts). They both are much more knowledgeable and could better help me in navigating my issues and sure enough they almost always have advice to push me through the next step. It brings to light the importance of being able to network in any kind of situation—whether it’s work or school life. It was rewarding to see my efforts pan out. Another treat this week was the R workshop hosted by Ross. I have taken computer science classes before and I have to say that he has arguably taught me more in 3 hours than I learned in most of my semester courses. He was very well-organized and really was great at explaining both the syntax and the math of the tools we were operating. This week was an exciting that has left me even more grateful of this summer.
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AuthorI’m a first-generation college student. I like enjoying the outdoors and finding new hiking trails. Archives
August 2019
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