So far my time here at Hatfield has been truly amazing. My roommates and I get along really well and I can always count on someone to bake wonderful pastries for us to eat. I’ve made a point to explore the city and my walks usually end with me grabbing some food from anywhere that catches my eye.
My research is going really well and my favorite part of it all is doing field work. At first I was a bit hesitant about rolling in mud but it has grown on me. The purpose of my experiment is to collect ghost shrimp from different sites in Willipa Bay to see if they contain a parasite that affects their behavior. The parasite comes out when it’s in the stomach of staghorn sculpins so in order to get the parasite out I have to recreate the stomach acid of the sculpin using a pepsin digest. I’ve completed a few digestions for my nematode project and I actually found the parasite we were looking for which was really exciting!! I can’t wait to finish all of my digestions and see the areas that the parasite occupies.
I absolutely love my lab because my lab mates and I are really close and we spend most of our time laughing rather than working. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the summer holds!
So funny to hear that rolling in the mud is growing on you – who knew that would be part of the job description :) Your staghorn sculpin stomach acid parasite project sounds really interesting, and awesome that you already got the digestions to work! I will look forward to hearing what you learn about how that’s affecting the shrimp populations. So great to hear that your roommates and lab mates are fun people, sounds like things are off to a good start!