Today is Friday which means the second week of the REU is going to be over and we are getting ready for a nice 3 day weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. This week was really fun and I think it was also a very productive week in terms of our research projects and learning scientific skills. Within the week, the Young Lab graduate students helped Flynn and I learn new skills like using the SEM completely on our own and we also learned how to use the Sputter Coater to gold coat our samples which we have been taking images on. The sputter coater machine coats the samples with an atom thick layer which is used as an electron conductor. We have been taking images of the Alivaconcha shells which will tell us more about the species and the differences between them. On top of learning how to use the SEM, we have also been leaning how to set up the process for Histology and using the Ultramicrotome in order to look at Gastropod larvae sexual reproductive organs. Learning how to slice the resin molds with the Ultramicrotome was a cool process because we were slicing at 300um. At first I could not understand how thin that was but to give an example, a piece of hair is ~1000um wide. When slicing with the glass knife, it is almost impossible to see a single slice with the naked eye and a compound microscope is required to visualize the slices. After having a discussion with the Young grad students, we finalized our summer projects and now I know that mine will be aimed more towards imaging a larval stage of the Ifremeria nautilei known as the Warens larvae. By the end of the summer, my project should consist on exploratory SEM imaging on a larval stage that has not been fully examined and more specifically on how the gastropod broods differently from other non deep sea species. Trees!Prior to coming to OIMB, the only forest ive really been to would be the forest in Santa Cruz CA. Seeing the Oregon Coast was something super that has been on my bucket list and coming to OIMB was a perfect opportunity. I really enjoy climbing trees so I took advantage of any tree that looks climbable. On these pictures above, The first tree is a tree I climbed on our camping trip to Sunset Bay. I could have gone really high up but I decided to stay low and not end the camping trip early hehe. The big tree that I am hugging was from a little spontaneous drive up to Newport OR with Craig. We stopped at a little parking lot and I saw this huge trunk. The other tree is from the same day at Ona Beach parking lot. On my way down the tree I kind of slipped and hit my head on a tree next to it which Flynn and Craig both saw. I would say the highlight of the week was going on a little road trip to Newport with Craig and Flynn to recover a part for the OIMB rover that broke. We met up with a OSU professor who was going to let us borrow the part that was broken from the same rover. The drive was so beautiful and was filled with super cool scenery that I am not used to. This was also a perfect time for the three of us to bond and get to know each other on a more personal level. When we met up and got the part, Craig took Flynn and I to the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center just to drive around and look at the campus. Although their marine lab has more "modern" buildings, I still think that the OIMB campus is better. On our way back down, we stopped at an A&W restaurant which I have never been to before. Tide poolingWoke up early on Friday since we were going to go tide pooling right after breakfast. We ate quick, got some boots, and hopped in the van. Nichole drove us to South Cove where we walked down some steep switchbacks and got to the beach. The tide was low enough to walk out and see some cool intertidal organisms. The picture on the left is me holding a huge Gumboot Chiton. On the right is a big Purple Sea Urchin bed with some red urchins and Green Anemone. I stayed dry for most of the morning and right before leaving, I accidentally stepped in some water that looked shallow and got my entire right foot soaked. I tried looking for some petrified wood or fossils on the cove but I was unsuccessful.
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AuthorHello I am Ytxzae Enriquez I am originally from Las Vegas, NV but have been living in Santa Barbara for a while. I just graduated from SBCC with two AAs in Biology. By the end of my career at Santa Barbara City College (SBCC) I really got into the Earth Sciences and I will transfer to University of California: Santa Cruz (UCSC) this Fall as an Earth Science/Ocean Science B.S Major. I really enjoy Surfing, Rock Climbing, Skateboarding, and going on super sick hikes. Archives
August 2022
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