Hey friends!
Not a whole lot to report. It's been so so busy and back to feeling like regular school. We're attending courses at UQ: University of Queensland. We get to ferry to school on the river and it's just amazing. It's super amazing and it's a nice glimpse into what going to a big school would be like. I really enjoy it! They have a whole food court, a few book stores, a barber shop, a travel store, a pharmacy, a dentist and so much more! It's a massive campus with a really nice grassy quad in the middle. It's a really beautiful campus and there are so many students walking around. It's nice being at LC because you get to know the majority of the school even if you're not friends, and I for sure take for granted the relationship I get with my professors but the big school is fun for a few weeks :)
We've currently been taking classes at UQ's IMB - the Institute of Molecular Biology. It's a high end lab facility with incredible resources, and it's been a privilege to be able to use their facility - as my professor says, it's a courtesy to her really, we are so insanely lucky for the opportunity.
We're finally getting into the venom biology course! The first day the class went into the field and collected a ton of assassin bugs, spiders and some other venomous critters. Day 2 we were in the lab and learned how to extract venom. We learned the proper technique for spiders - both mygalomorphs and araneomorphs, assassin bugs, bull ants, centipedes and scorpions. We then also learned how to organize bioassays and inject crickets and mealworms with the venom that we had previously extracted.
To be honest I found this really hard. Extracting venom from the assassin bugs means we need to electrocute them. You can see the animals physically trying to pull away and spasming. When we do it later for real and for research the scientists then have to freeze - kill - them to preserve them. Injecting the crickets is also awful. A lot of them end up losing legs in the process. We also nearly impale them on a needle to inject them. Some of them its clear to see the venom taking effect. I've gotten so much better with dealing with bugs and creepy crawlers ect over my invertebrate zoology course and over this trip with field research and everything -- but I'm also pretty sure the lab side isn't fully my cuppa tea either... I'm not a crazy big animal lover - I do love animals, but it's hard to see the bugs spaz and squirm and actually show pain you never think they can have.
*the image at the bottom is not for the super faint hearted: crickets 24 hrs post centipede venom injection. They turned black and were paralysed.
The next few days have been lectures and learning the more techy side. We used LC's first super computer from Aus! Which is super exciting! It's called BLT - because there are 3 parts to the super computer. It's able to compute crazy amounts of information super fast. We were using terminal and learning some compsci skills.
Per usual, the things we are learning and doing are so so so cool, but it's still very full on. I haven't had a chance to explore the city yet and tomorrow we are heading to North Stradbroke Island for more field research.
That's all for now, I'll write more soon. Sorry about the lack of images too, we aren't allowed phones in the lab and it's been rainy the last few days and I haven't taken any photos of the campus. Luckily we're here for another 2 weeks and so some will be coming! If you do want to see the crickets scroll down.
Until next time!
Cheers,
Kate
ksaylor@lclark.edu
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Not a whole lot to report. It's been so so busy and back to feeling like regular school. We're attending courses at UQ: University of Queensland. We get to ferry to school on the river and it's just amazing. It's super amazing and it's a nice glimpse into what going to a big school would be like. I really enjoy it! They have a whole food court, a few book stores, a barber shop, a travel store, a pharmacy, a dentist and so much more! It's a massive campus with a really nice grassy quad in the middle. It's a really beautiful campus and there are so many students walking around. It's nice being at LC because you get to know the majority of the school even if you're not friends, and I for sure take for granted the relationship I get with my professors but the big school is fun for a few weeks :)
We've currently been taking classes at UQ's IMB - the Institute of Molecular Biology. It's a high end lab facility with incredible resources, and it's been a privilege to be able to use their facility - as my professor says, it's a courtesy to her really, we are so insanely lucky for the opportunity.
We're finally getting into the venom biology course! The first day the class went into the field and collected a ton of assassin bugs, spiders and some other venomous critters. Day 2 we were in the lab and learned how to extract venom. We learned the proper technique for spiders - both mygalomorphs and araneomorphs, assassin bugs, bull ants, centipedes and scorpions. We then also learned how to organize bioassays and inject crickets and mealworms with the venom that we had previously extracted.
To be honest I found this really hard. Extracting venom from the assassin bugs means we need to electrocute them. You can see the animals physically trying to pull away and spasming. When we do it later for real and for research the scientists then have to freeze - kill - them to preserve them. Injecting the crickets is also awful. A lot of them end up losing legs in the process. We also nearly impale them on a needle to inject them. Some of them its clear to see the venom taking effect. I've gotten so much better with dealing with bugs and creepy crawlers ect over my invertebrate zoology course and over this trip with field research and everything -- but I'm also pretty sure the lab side isn't fully my cuppa tea either... I'm not a crazy big animal lover - I do love animals, but it's hard to see the bugs spaz and squirm and actually show pain you never think they can have.
*the image at the bottom is not for the super faint hearted: crickets 24 hrs post centipede venom injection. They turned black and were paralysed.
The next few days have been lectures and learning the more techy side. We used LC's first super computer from Aus! Which is super exciting! It's called BLT - because there are 3 parts to the super computer. It's able to compute crazy amounts of information super fast. We were using terminal and learning some compsci skills.
Per usual, the things we are learning and doing are so so so cool, but it's still very full on. I haven't had a chance to explore the city yet and tomorrow we are heading to North Stradbroke Island for more field research.
That's all for now, I'll write more soon. Sorry about the lack of images too, we aren't allowed phones in the lab and it's been rainy the last few days and I haven't taken any photos of the campus. Luckily we're here for another 2 weeks and so some will be coming! If you do want to see the crickets scroll down.
Until next time!
Cheers,
Kate
ksaylor@lclark.edu
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
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| crickets 24 hours after injection with a 1:2 dilution of crude centipede venom |