debor042

Gastric bypass- a wonderful alternative to graduate school 'Tis the season of grad school acceptances and major life choices. Two years ago (!) I was an overly confident undergrad preparing to become a graduate researcher. Late night Googling of "how to prepare for grad school" further assured me I was ready. Have experience in a research lab? Check. Know I may have weird hours? Check. Secured some kind of TA/RA funding? Check. Today, reflecting upon this time of year, I wish someone would have told me about a few aspects of grad school that seem to never be highlighted on those "What to Know about Grad School" websites: 1. Yes, being successful in grad school is about working hard, but it’s even more about being creative . Probably in your undergrad studies, the more time spent on homework or a project was directly proportional to your grades or success. I assumed that since I was a hard worker and previously worked in a research lab, I would be a gre...

Do you see the tiny green film at the bottom of the beaker in the picture above?  This extremely small clump of green stuff is a diatom sample weighing less than 20 milligrams that I need to carefully process and guard with my life for carbon isotope analysis. If I lose any of this sample or ruin a procedure, I will likely have to spend several weeks waiting for a new culture to grow and start over again. Thoughts that have been running through my mind recently include: What if I lose any of my sample while transferring it between beakers? What if it spills? What if a piece of hair lands in it? (note: things like hair and dust can ruin stable isotope samples) Despite how many methods papers I read, I still feel like I have no idea what I'm doing. What if I dry the sample too long, or add too much acid or completely miss a secret step that isn't described in any journal articles? WHY IS THIS FILTER FALLING APART? WHY? NOOOOO!!!!!  Failure and data loss can happen at all stage...

Whether we are working in the field or in the lab, the things we have to wear to do our work make us stand out from the undergrad crowd at our universities. Below, I have listed the latest styles for Fall 2012 Everglades research:   Field Tannin-dyed Pants   Above is a picture of pants that I wear in the field. These pants are naturally tie-dyed with streaks of grey and orange from various organic compounds floating around in the water. The key rule in Everglades fashion is to never wear anything nice or new, so these khaki pants that I’ve had since 9th grade are perfect for the field. Ambiguous Event T-shirts Again, nice new clothing is never worn in the field, so research is the perfect opportunity to get use out of bizarre free T-shirts from volunteer events and raffle gift bags. If you are caught wearing Ambiguous Event T-shirts while transitioning between the field and your home, however, you will be inevitably be questioned by people who intensely read your T-shirt. ...

Today’s post is the last installment of my series “Grad Student Life Beyond Fieldwork.” Take a look at Part 1 (Classes), Part 2 (Teaching) and Part 3 (Our Offices) to read about other facets of grad student life. Part 4, the post you are reading now, is about the labs where we produce and analyze data. Some measurements we use for our research, like water temperature and salinity, can be measured directly in the field. Other more complicated things like “cyanobacteria community structure” involve taking field samples back to a lab (or multiple labs) for extensive analysis. Below I have posted a “virtual tour” of the lab I work in, the Microbial Ecology Lab at FIU, to give readers an idea of what grad students and scientists do other than walk around wearing lab coats.  Above is the door to the lab. It basically says, “Welcome! You are about to encounter biological materials, carcinogens, flammable materials and high voltage equipment! You should probably turn around.” ...

When one thinks of a student doing research in the Everglades, one would assume that the researcher is an outdoorsy type who could never thrive in an office or indoor work environment. Part 3 of this series, however, is about grad student offices, which is where some of us actually spend the majority of our time. If you haven't been keeping up with this series, you can learn more about the other aspects of grad student life in Part 1 and Part 2 of "Grad Student Life Beyond Fieldwork." The picture above is my office, which I currently share with 3 other Earth and Environment grad students. Because I am working on writing my thesis proposal, I’ve recently been spending a lot of time here. You may notice that there are no windows because scientists apparently hate sunlight. You also may notice that the space was likely a lab before it was a grad student office. That means that at some point in the room’s past, the space may have contained heavy metals, carcinogens, rad...

What do FCE grad students do besides trekking through mangroves, collecting water samples and battling mosquitoes? My four part series, “Grad Student Life Beyond Fieldwork,” is designed to give readers of this blog a general idea of what we do when we’re not in the Everglades. Whether you’re a prospective student wanting to know more about grad school life or a PI wondering why we haven’t finished analyzing our data yet, we hope this series gives you a more complete picture of what we do. Part 1 covered graduate coursework and degree requirements. Today’s post, Part 2, covers our experiences as teaching assistants. This is a picture of my classroom for History of Life Lab.  Today, my students did a genetics lab involving phenotype ratios in corn pollen and corn kernels. Many of us are financially supported by research assistantships , particularly those who are advanced in their PhD research. Others, including myself, make grad school financially feasible through teaching as...

Riding in a boat in sunny South Florida, observing wildlife, being immersed in nature: all of these could describe someone’s vacation plans or a typical day of fieldwork for a FCE grad student. Although being a FCE grad student may at times sound enviable, there are numerous other aspects of grad student life, both positive and negative, which I plan to cover in a four-part series. First, I will focus on the classes we have to take. What people think our average day looks like The real average day of a FCE student While our main goals are to conduct research, publish our work and write dissertations, we are still students who must take classes. Since there is no “Everglades” major offered at any university, FCE grad students are scattered across many departments. At FIU , where a majority of FCE grad students are enrolled, students conducting Everglades-related research are majoring in Environmental Studies, Geoscience, Biology, Chemistry, Anthropology and probably 9 other majors I ...