My lab group looks at small stuff–for example, our organisms of choice are microscopic, single-celled plantlike creatures called diatoms. But because gosh darn it that just ain’t small enough, we like to look at the genetic machinery (DNA, RNA, all that jazz) inside those organisms. So a lot of our time is spent in the lab, looking into microscopes or heating/cooling small amounts of liquid (no joke). It’s way more interesting than it sounds, I promise.

But, in contrast to that #lablife, we also get to go on awesome research cruises to collect our diatoms! These boat trips are more research than cruise, but they’re extremely cool (see my posts here and here on the cruise I went on this past summer) and you basically get to travel for free! Last October two of my fellow graduate students, Natalie Cohen and Carly Moreno, went on a cruise to the Galapagos Islands off the coast of Ecuador. I’ve interviewed these lovely people about the trip and subjected that video to my novice editing skills (see below). Enjoy!