The final countdown

The past couple weeks have been busy, busy, busy--crunch time in the lab. I've pulled a couple 15 hour days with my REU-lab mate (which, of course means having dinner delivered to us in our building, see below).  We completed amplifying DNA and sent it to the Center for Genomics Research and Biocomputing (CGRB) here on OSU's campus for sequencing.

Best thing about staying late? Jimmy John's.

Last weekend, we went out to the coastal town of Waldport.  It's a very cute little town, and although the wind was merciless, we HAD to go to the beach.  We also poked around some of the gift shops and thrift stores.

 

We also drove south to Cape Perpetua, which was a beautifully scenic drive along the coast. There is an area called "Devil's churn", where the cliff rocks recede inland, and the water crashing against the cliff at high tide makes quite a spectacle. Unfortunately, we went between tides, so it wasn't very dramatic. 

On our drive back, we stopped to eat at a Mom & Pop joint called Blue Whale. It was there that I ate the first deep fried meal I've had since leaving WV 9 weeks ago (a fried chicken sandwich).  It was enjoyable (and reminded me of the greasy meals waiting for me back home), but I didn't find myself missing it at all this summer. I've noticed that since living here, I've been eating much more healthy meals (hardly any red meat, no fried foods), and the temptation for eating unhealthy foods doesn't have a large presence here like it does in WV.

Last Sunday, I worked up the courage to do something I've always wanted to do--get a tattoo!

It was inspired by the book my mom used to read to me and my sister when we were young--Guess How Much I Love You. The book is about a little nutbrown hare and a big nutbrown hare going back and forth trying to express how much they love each other. At the end of the story, the little nutbrown hare says, "I love you all the way up to the moon", and falls asleep before the big nutbrown hare replies, "I love you all the way up to the moon...and back."

 

 

 

This past week I've spent dealing with the large (incredibly large) data set that resulted from sequencing DNA found in 105 samples.  I started out trying to analyze the data using a program called QIIME (Quantitative Insights into Microbial Ecology), but this program only works in Linux. In addition to this speedbump, I ran into several other issues with this program, so I switched to a program that runs on Windows called Mothur.  I've stuck with this program, but it's taken me a while to learn how to code all the commands and get everything working correctly (even if there is a step-by-step tutorial available online), since the dataset is so large (it takes a long time to run each command).

After a longggg week, one of my mentors extended an invitation to myself and the other REU students to go crabbing in Waldport. It was the PERFECT day--sunny but not too hot, and plenty of crabs jumping into our pots.

 The bait that goes into the crab pots is often mink (they are raised in local farms and killed for their fur, which is completely awful). Being raised in WV, of course I was the first one to grab a frozen mink! Daddy didn't raise no yuppy girl, that's for sure.

 Securing the bait to the pot

 Awesome roommate selfie

 Can you feel the excitement in this boat?!

 Pulling up the first pot!

 Being law abiding citizens, we sorted through the crabs to throw back the females and the ones that were too small.

 Baby crab!

 There were lots of seals hanging out on the sand bar. We also saw them poking their heads up in the water around our pots--apparently, they also thing the mink bait is a tasty meal.

Fruits of our labor--8 crabs!  Of course I didn't eat any (don't like seafood), but it was a fun experience nonetheless.

This is probably my last blog post (sad, I know). I will be getting on the Hutshuttle to the airport on Friday night and flying home Saturday morning. From there, I will drive to Huntington on Sunday and starting classes on Monday.

In the name of science

So this week we found out what happens when you give a group of young scientists 20 kg of dry ice.

 

We also found out what happens when I listen to TV show recommendations from friends (this one's on you, Sam Cogar and Mark Castle), after I got a free trial of Netflix and managed to watch 2 1/2 seasons of Lost in 8 days.

It's been really hot the past few days, so we decided to check out the local aquatic center today. Aside from the screaming children and strangers swimming much too close to you, it was a nice experience.

Just another day at the office

The past week has been a relatively dull one, considering I stayed in Corvallis all week. I spent a lot of time in the lab doing more PCR and doing gel electrophoresis. Some sediment samples came in  from Italy, and they came with 15kg of dry ice (which I had a fun time with).



Some more samples came in yesterday from Belgium with more dry ice--suggestions for fun things to do with it are welcome.

After discovering there is a piano in the basement of my living facility, I spent a lot of time playing this week. Of course it sounds like it hasn't been tuned since before I was born, but it's nice to play again.



After a lot of discussion with my peers about grad schools, I've been doing some thinking and decided that I might be interested in pursuing a degree in oceanography, studying microbes in the ocean.


I know that gif doesn't have anything to do with microbes, but it came up when I searched for "the ocean" and it was too darn cute to not put in.

On Friday, we went to the movie theater and saw How to Train Your Dragon 2 (yes, a group of young adults going to see a children's movie). Afterwards we went to a supermarket called Market of Choice; it doesn't take much to amuse me when it comes to grocery stores--WV doesn't exactly have much beyond Walmart and Kroger. This store had a lot of food that came from local sources (I recognized the names from the farmer's market), and if I wasn't a struggling young adult in college, I would like to do all my shopping there.

A group of REU students went to Portland this past weekend (no room for me in the car, or I would've gone), and they brought me back some happiness in the form of sugar.

 

Next weekend we're going on another camping trip, so stay tuned for more upcoming adventures.

Field work (aka playing in the mud)

Today we drove out to Newport (a coastal town) at low tide. Another REU student in my lab needed to collect some cores from an anoxic location, and of course I volunteered to help. The location we went to was a mud flat covered in algae.

After getting stuck in the mud, we drove to the Yaquina Lighthouse and poked around the tidal pools.

 

California mussels 

Sea urchins 

Not many sea stars in the tidal pools due to an epidemic of a disease known as sea star wasting disease.

We had a lovely lunch at a small bakery; I really enjoy the abundance of bakeries in Oregon.  I also appreciate that coffee shops usually have as many options for tea as they do coffee.

Off the grid

Week 4 of my REU project consisted of more DNA extractions and learning how to prep DNA for PCR. After a full week of using my body weight in plastic (it isn't easy being green when you're a microbiologist), I got to go on a weekend camping trip and become one with nature.

Here is a map of where we ventured over the course of the weekend:

Thursday after work, we drove east to Mary's Peak (the highest point in the Coastal Range). We hiked to the top, where on a clear day one can see as far west as the ocean and as far north as Mt. Rainier, Washington (it wasn't clear for us).

I don't know much geology, but I was able to identify this as sandstone :)

Friday morning, we started driving east, stopping at a few nature trails and waterfalls along the way.

Around lunchtime, we stopped at Iron Mountain and hiked to the top, stopping along the way to admire the wildflowers.

   Check out the succulents!

 These mountains are known as the three sisters.

We had a bite for lunch, then drove on to the Andrews Experimental Forest, where we set up camp. I helped make dinner (burgers and hot dogs), then waited around at the headquarters with some students that didn't want to do another hike.

Saturday morning, we packed up and continued driving east, moving to the drier area of eastern Oregon. We drove through lava fields, and stopped at a lookout.

Driving farther east into the desert, we stopped at a rock outcrop known to contain fossils. (I found one that looked like a mollusk.)

We drove farther, through the town of Sisters, OR, where a quilt festival was being held.

Finally, we were in the desert. After dinner, we stopped at the Painted Hills to watch the sunset.

 This is probably the worst road conditions I've endured in OR--still better than any road in WV.

Sunday morning, we packed up and drove to the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument, where we did a nature hike and stopped at the visitor's center.

 

It's very interesting to me to see the wide variety of ecosystems present in Oregon, from temperate rainforests to deserts. I'm hoping to see a lot more of the state during the rest of my stay here.