Don't underestimate the power...

...of a class that you assume has no relevance to your life.

I've done it. You've done it. We've all done it. You take a class, perhaps because it's a requirement, maybe because it's the lesser of a couple of evils. You set your sights on completion and revel in the fact that once it's over, it's over. It'll never pop up in your life again.

LIEEESSSSS!

Two particular instances come to mind.

1. In undergrad I was required to take Chemical Oceanography. Yes, it's just as painful, if not more painful, than it sounds. Equations that I'll never remember, my first (and only) academic warning, a cruise spent curled up in the fetal position on the deck from a bad case of sea sickness. But I fought through it and celebrated the end of that class and all that came with it.

That summer I attended an REU, and my project required running hemolymph (AKA crab blood) samples through a spectrophotometer. The grad student in my lab explained that I first had to create a standard curve with samples of known concentrations and then run my actual samples. My mouth all but hit the floor. I almost laughed out loud at the irony. Of course I knew how to do this.....it was all I had done in my Chemical Oceanography lab. The student proceeded to watch me run through a standard curve and a sample in a matter of minutes. If nothing else, I was able to impress a grad student with my stellar spec skills.

2. This semester I am taking a seminar on evolution and speciation. During the first class, the teacher asked us to describe our projects and say whether the knowledge of species was important. I didn't think it was important for my project. I mean, I'm studying pesticide toxicity in well known mollusc species, how would that matter?

Fast forward a couple of months. I'm completing my thesis proposal and one of my committee members questions our certainty that we're working with the right species of clam. I stated that I'm using the Northern quahog, Mercenaria mercenaria. But as the hatchery I'm using is in Florida, was there a chance I was actually getting the Southern quahog, Mercenaria campechiensis? We realized that answered that question would require extensive genetic testing that I didn't have time for. I ended up going through my proposal and changing it to say that I am using Mercenaria sp. My teacher would surely laugh in my face if he knew that speciation managed to affect my project.

So lesson learned: everything is useful. Don't say I didn't warn you.


Fact of the Post: A video of an octopus caught walking on land!

Race....and sea piggies

Yes, not what you might expect, yet I've come to a revelation. I'm going to start writing about whatever science I come across - marine biology or not. See, while marine biology is my first passion, I have a curiosity and appreciation for all fields of science (mmmm maybe not organic chemistry). Also, marine biology may be a huge portion of my life, but I think it'll be nice to mix things up once in awhile....and it might help me stay on top of blogging : /

So about a month ago I went home for my fall break and - as I usually do - looked up the Smithsonian Musuem of Natural History to see if there were any new exhibits. Lo and behold, there was! I hopped on over for the temporary exhibit "Race: Are We So Different?" I was drawn in by the website's explanation of the exhibit as a look at race from all angles: biological, social, economical, historical. I thought I'd spend 10 minutes in there, read a good tid bit and move on.

I was in there for about an hour.

The different angles were so interesting. The biological background of why people's skin look different and how that has been influenced by our evolutionary history. The history of the word "race" and how it's meaning has changed. Statistics on racial differences in income, education, and health - and how they don't always match our assumptions (Did you know that Mediterranean people also have a high occurance of the sickle cell allele?! I didn't! There was a story about a man of Italian descent who took years to realize and then convince doctors he has sickle cell because people assume it only occurs in people of African descent). There were movies and photos of people of all races, of all mixed ethnicities, sharing their stories. It was really one of the more insightful exhibits I've seen in a long time.

So take a minute to check out the site, and please go to the exhibit if you happen to be in DC before January.

Fact of the Post....comes from the Natural History Museum! The museum's Species of the Day is the sea pig, Scotoplanes globosa. Read about it here!



Oink oink!