Lab meetings

The past two days I have had the privilege to sit in on my lab's meetings. The first was a journal club in which each person scanned through a journal, chose articles which they thought might interest the others, and discussed them with the group. I read some fascinating studies- some of which I didn't totally understand. The most interesting paper which we discussed was concerning the role of double-stranded RNA in transgenerational adaptations, a study detailing the mechanisms of epigenetic a. Although I had to spend a few hours on Google just for the vocabulary, I got through it and was amazed by the end. 

In the second lab meeting, a prospective post-doctoral scientist presented his past, present, and possible future research to our lab. He had been all over the world from what I understood! Much of his study was conducted on European blackbirds in Germany and light pollution's affect on their lifestyles and circadian rhythms. He applied some of his hypotheses to the relationship between light pollution and nature as a whole and related it to recent studies which say that humans may be becoming more obese due to disruptions in their natural circadian rhythms. I had never before considered the affects that light pollution could have on me personally, considering I am not usually aware of it. The discussion afterward was energetic and interesting as well. People were suggesting solutions to certain ambiguities as well as challenging his methods, I find myself wanting to contribute at times. It was a welcoming yet challenging environment which wasn't afraid of intellectual confrontation. What a great feeling!

New feather processes

This last week has been pretty exciting! at the the lab they have been training me to take over some of the bigger parts of the experiment. First I selected one feather from each ornamentation for each bird based on their variation and viability in our programs. After 100 individual house finches and 300 feathers in total, we're moving on to the next step. Last week and this week is going to be a lot of landmarking. 

We use a program to landmark specific points on the house finch feathers so that not only can we compare the presence of pigment between ornamentations, we can also compare the feathers' pigmentation between species. Our program matches up the landmarks that we have marked so we could compare the feather of a house finch with, say, the feather of a flamingo. Their feathers are radically different sizes which is why this program is so amazing and useful.

Throughout the past week I have also been scanning feathers for later analysis. I gather all the feathers that have been collected from individual house finches during field outings, take down all of their data, then prepare them for scanning. After strapping on some gloves and washing everything and the kitchen sink with isopropyl, I use forceps to delicately line up and organize the feathers by ornamentation on the scanner. Then I cover them with a plastic sheet and flip down the cover to scan. This whole process is more difficult than you'd thjnk. The steps themselves are easy to comprehend and describe,  however, the patience required is immense. When placing the feathers (many of which couldn't be a few millimeters long) on the scanning bed, you cannot breathe too hard, you can not make sudden movers. The most frustrating part is the static. As you are placing the plastic covering over the feathers, they will often fly up and stick to the plastic, and you have to start over again. 

Even with all the tedious annoyances, I actually really enjoy it. I don't know that I've always been the most patient person, but this task has certainly made me more patient. It's a challenge and one that I find myself growing better at everyday. I have been learning so much, I think the best part is the accomplishment and sense of contribution I have. I am so grateful that I am able to contribute to a community filled with people that I respect and have been growing closer with for the past few weeks. 

Thanks for reading!

First Week

I couldn't be more excited to start working tomorrow. I will be performing digital image analysis on and finding the carotenoids concentration of house finch feathers in order to compare the ways in which different individuals intake and modify carotenoids.

Birds cannot make carotenoids, a pigment; they can only obtain them through consumption. Then individual birds modify them by, for instance, adding an oxygen to use them how they like. In our lab, we are comparing the presence of various carotenoids within the House Finch species.

Later in the study, we will landmark and compare the carotenoid content interspecially.

This study will give us an idea of how the use of various carotenoids affects the feather structure, how their diet may affect their pigmentation, and why the use of this pigment has been sexually selected.

I feel so lucky to be a part of something so fascinating. I can't wait!