Hi all! I've been really busy here in Bermuda- my project is keeping me in lab for most hours of the day- Monday through Friday I don't usually get to see the sunlight!. However every weekend feels like a tropical vacation, and I've been able to explore almost all of Bermuda in over the last couple of months.
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| This is a sea urchin embryo that I fertilized in vitro for my project. The outer ring is a fertilization envelope that prevents extra sperm (tiny black dots) from entering the egg (big yellow dot) |
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| Getting ready for a night out in the "big" city, Hamilton. |
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| This is Andrea, a scientist at BIOS, and Ameena, an REU who is working on a project in the same lab as me. |
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| Preparing a DNA unwinding solution. |
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| REU Amy working on a fluorescence microscope |
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| After around 48 hours, the embryo seen earlier turns into a pluteus larvae. This one was posing for the camera- you don't always get to see all four of the arms. |
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| Sunday is ice cream day, and Kelsey is a big fan. |
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| My friend Abby and I at the local beach, Whale Bone Bay |
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| All of us REUs at Whale Bone Bay. |
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| Some of us REUs and about half of the fall-semester students spent a Sunday cleaning up Whale Bone Bay |
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| All of us REUs after giving talks introducing our projects. |
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| The local restaurant, Swizzle Inn, has a trivia night on Thursdays that we go to when its possible. |
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| We saw this awesome statue when I went with some of the Fall students to a museum on the far side of the island. I asked for the BIOS discount and the woman at the front thought it was so funny that I thought there would be a discount that she let us in for free |
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| This is a nice spot to swim called Blue Hole |
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| All of the REUs on Nonsuch Island. Nobody knows where the name comes from, but people are now attempting to restore it to the Bermuda of 100+ years ago. It is the only Bermudian home to the Cahow, a bird that used to cover the island. Sailors called Bermuda the Isle of Devils because the Cahow sounded like demons to them, however when they eventually began to explore Bermuda the Cahow seemed more like a gift from heaven. Cahows had never been exposed to humans, and had no fear of hunters. They were also very attracted to light, and would fly directly into fire. In Bermuda there is such thing as a free lunch! |
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| Titanic reenactment |
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| Fall students+REUs on Nonsuch Island |
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| There is some great beachside rock climbing in Bermuda |
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| On weekends we run on island time |
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| yep, thats me! |
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| Wreck diving! |
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| We found some great cave diving our second week! A few days ago we went back with masks and waterproof flashlights. |
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| Cliff jumping off Spanish Point! I wish I'd taken some videos of the local kids, they were doing flips and spins and filming them to post on their Youtube channel. The cliff jumping is so good that Red Bull actually made this awesome video off of these cliffs and a few others around the island There is also some great rock climbing up the face of the cliff. I'm so glad I brought my climbing shoes, and I've met an intern here named Matt who has lots of chalk. |
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| This is me with my project mentor, Helena. |
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| I inject potassium chloride into the sea urchins to relax them and induce spawning. |
