life experience
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Rewind to October 30th, arriving in Manzanillo
Before flying out to Mexico on October 30th, equipment and chemicals had to be shipped to the research vessel Atlantis which was docked in San Francisco before sailing to meet the science group in Manzanillo. When preparing for a research cruise every experiment to be preformed must be walked through meticulously, and everything that could conceivably Continue reading
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Feet on the ground
The band width on the ship was a bear. I couldn’t update as frequently as I would have liked to because of connectivity. I’ll catch up next time from the beginning of the cruise through my leave from Costa Rica. Copious notes were taken, data was collected, tears were shed which sprung from frustration and Continue reading
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Changed forever at sea
As a first year grad student, I have had a lot of personal challenges on this trip. There have been tremendous highs and depressing lows. Science at sea is about seizing every moment that you can and making the most of every moment that is possible. This is especially true in the case of my Continue reading
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Day 7 at 9 degrees North
Today is our 7th day at sea in the East Pacific. We’ve been stationed at the 9 degrees north study site and have launched two Alvin dives. The first evening of Alvin’s dives brought up buckets of giant Riftia tube worms for me to dissect and take samples that are needed to study the metabolic pathways Continue reading
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First Launch at Nine Degrees North
This morning was the first launch of 16 over the next two weeks here on the Dark Cruise 2014 at Nine Degrees North. The first passengers on the ship are Stefan Seivert and his PhD graduate student Jesse McNichol from Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute. They’ll be back in about 6 hours with samples and then we Continue reading
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Hello, Goodbye Manzanillo!
After two layovers, three flights, and a 1 hour taxi ride through the tropical heat we, a group of 16 scientists who had in some way or another found their way to the Manzanillo airport, converged on the Hotel Colonial by the Manzanillo harbor with luggage and miscellaneous last minute science equipment crates. Over a Continue reading
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T-72 hours
72 hours from now I will be on a plane on my way to Manzanilla, Mexico. All of our laboratory equipment has been shipped to San Francisco over the last few months to be put onto the RV Atlantis which should be on its way to Mexico to meet us on Thursday. I’ve spent the Continue reading
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8 days away….
First, a shameless brag about a project that I worked on as an intern which was featured in the New York Times… Fighting poisons with microbes Some recent deep-sea footage of some amazing creatures on our home planet, just in time for my deep-sea research cruise. I hope I get to spot any specimens like Continue reading
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Countdown to Manzanilla: 28 days
October is already upon us, although I can’t tell. It’s my first year living in Florida and it’s still as hot as a nun’s habit reading the Tropic of Cancer. I’ve been catching up on my background reading and practicing my experimental techniques as well as optimizing my data collection procedures. This all sounds like Continue reading
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New beginnings, new research, new focus
My first week back to school and my first week of grad school has been a little window to my future. I have the privilege this year of being a research assistant which means that I earn my measly stipend doing what I came to grad school to do: research. In addition to not having Continue reading
charismaticmicrofauna 