5 February 2023 Celebrating and Waiting to Redeploy

Celebrating and Waiting to Redeploy

On Friday we had our last expedition to Miers Valley. This trip had been rescheduled several times due to weather and that morning it did not look promising. It was the coldest we had had in several weeks and the wind was biting. To our surprise, in the Dry Valleys it was a beautiful, calm, sunny day. We we downloaded and serviced the data logger - replacing batteries and checking connections. Our next task was to collect the samples and make some repairs to a sediment trap in the valley. We had the GPSA Global Positioning System (GPS) is a satellite-based navigation system used to track the location or position of objects on the Earth’s surface. coordinates and searched the valley for an hour, trying to find the thing. Our amazing helo pilot even took us on an extra turn around the lake to find it. Well. At some point you have to agree that it's just gone.

The end of the field season gave us a chance to reflect on our goals, challenges, and successes of the year. The Wormherders had a fantastic summer in the Dry Valleys and, except for one missing sediment trap, got everything done and more. Last night we found one last time to sit together for dinner and celebrate our accomplishments. Dr. Byron Adams, the principal investigator of the project (PI), was awarded the prestigious "Golden Beaker" award. This award is given to the PI who runs the smoothest research program with the fewest hiccups and lowest team anxiety. The award recognizes PIs for their team's leadership, motivation, science achievements and ability to stay in the good graces of support staff. Congratulations to Byron.

This was also the official Paper Bag award ceremony where each team member received an award for their achievements and contributions to the Wormherders. Meredith very thoughtfully created these awards with her ZERO spare time. I won the prestigious "Most Likely to Argue about Pumpkin Soup" and "Best one-liners award". Recognizing accomplishments and contributions is important to the growth and unity of a team.

After finding some duplicated and deleted data in the spreadsheets earlier, Ariel and Byron recognized my contribution with the 100% Proof medal. I will cherish it always and use it as a reminder to always check for duplicate entries.

Play Wormherder!

A couple people asked what we do all day in the lab. In the geo-chem lab they are running samples for chemical analysis later. In the biology side we are looking at life. I tried to make a video of a soil sample biological analysis (also known as counting worms). It is hard to keep the worms in focus and the field of the camera is a different ratio than the microscope. I think the video can approximate the experience of counting worms. Watch it and see if you can identify two species of nematodes, two tardigrade species, rotifers, and ciliates.