Science grad students are asked terrifying questions on the regular, but the very worst one comes from our moms. It’s usually tacked onto an otherwise innocent conversation, when Mom will casually pause and say, “Honey, your latest oxygen flux data are truly fascinating! By the way, have you met anyone lately?” It’s enough to make … Continue reading
Last Wednesday, our very own Kelsey Ellis defended her Master’s Thesis in front of a crowd of thousands of people. Just kidding, there weren’t quite that many people, but I’m sure it feels like that to a nervous student on the brink of one of the most stressful times of their graduate career. A ‘defense’ … Continue reading
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 … Continue reading
Check out A Scientist at Sea: California Current Research Cruise (Part I) as well! This research cruise is about halfway over and we find ourselves within sight of Big Sur, off the coast of southern California. Everyone is searching, frantically, for water. The dark irony of it hasn’t escaped the scientists aboard the R/V Melville—we’re … Continue reading
So my research involves examining diatoms, which are free-floating aquatic phytoplankton with silicified cell walls (a substance similar to glass!). A lot of my time in the lab is spent culturing different species of diatoms, which is interesting but sometimes dissatisfying–since diatoms are microscopic, most of my cultures look like vials of clear or brownish … Continue reading
