30 September 2009

Labrat

If my work is boring nobody would want to read about it. If my work is interesting I wouldn't want anybody to read about it. Except for my co-authors, the editor of the journal of choice, and the reviewers. Roughly speaking.

But quite unlike what the blog so far suggests, a lot of my time is actually spent working. So I decided to shortly write about it anyway. In shrouded terms!

In order to reconstruct the Icelandic sea level, which is one of the objectives of this project, we study the downcore distribution of specific foram species, which have each their own preference regarding elevation above mean tide level. However, Roland was not entirely satisfied with the precision by which we know these. So right now I'm tracing a few species in our surface samples, of which we have very precisely measured elevation. And it's fun, if you're a nerd! So only weeks into the job I already have material, a question, and expectations, which is where science is fascinating. If you first have to spend months and months on preparation before the first results come in that can be a tad tedious. So I am quite happy cutting bits out of our surface samples, sieving them to goo, staining them, splitting them and then ogling them under the microscope. And finding out how high my bugs want to be!

Another find-the-foram pic... this one was lying there so decoratively. And on popular demand (see comments): with an outliny thing!



2 comments:

Karen said...

Uhm, arrow please? For those of us not used to finding forams? I guess it's like looking at the noise of an optically trapped bead to determine if you trapped a DNA-molecule:it takes some practice (I know for sure it took me a loooonnnnggg time....)

Unknown said...

Volgende keer graag een pijltje bij de forams