- Bucknell undergraduates Paige Collins, Nigel Ravida and Paige Caine joined the lab, and leapt into the business of DNA extraction and PCR (to genetically sex kittiwake chicks), along with Katie Edwards who returned to the lab following Morgan’s sabbatical (but is headed out for a semester abroad in Scotland next semester!). RNA extraction and hormone assays are the next project on the agenda for this group, as the lab works through kittiwake samples from the 2017 field season.
- Mae Lacey, who had joined the lab last year in preparation for the 2017 field season, is working on analyzing the enormous files of microclimate data she collected over the summer, both for her honors thesis, and to present her research at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology in January. Her research this summer was supported by a the award of a Sigma Xi Grant-in-Aid-of-Research, and her participation in the conference was supported both by SICB and by Bucknell University.
- This year, the lab is piloting the use of the organizational/communication app “Slack” to coordinate all lab communications and keep track of documents (since we all like to ignore email, sometimes, and it can be nice to keep texting for personal communication). So far, so good.
- Our lab invited collaborator Kyle Elliott (from McGill University) to give a Biology Department seminar in October. Kyle and his students also work on Middleton Island, and our labs have been exchanging ideas, field support and collaborations. His talk on aging and senescence in wild birds was an exciting addition to our seminar series this Fall.