Last two weeks of July

We are in Vancouver (sadly), for--a solid TWO WEEKS! Well, not exactly "sadly", because I love Vancouver, it's just, well . . .

Let me put it this way: Summer in the city is really hot and crowded. The black asphalt absorbs the suns rays and releases heat throughout the night. Cities stay hot. Lasqueti Island (more on "where" later), on the other hand has no cement and is covered in a blanket of green (I'm talking about trees). Also, since Lasqueti is an Island, there is usually an ocean breeze somewhere close by. And if not, the ocean itself is a five-minute walk away. Oh, and Lasqueti doesn't get crowded. Our closest full-time Lasquetian neighbors are a 20-minute walk away from us. So, no surprise we often retreat to Lasqueti for most of the summer. To find out more about this wonderful island go to: http://www.lasqueti.ca/home .

Now, where is Lasqueti? Find Vancouver Island and Vancouver on the map, and then Lasqueti is sandwiched between the two, and a little bit north (kind of). On the map, Lasqueti is the island is in the bright, obvious, fire-hydrant-red circle.

But I digress. I was going to say what occupies and interests me in Vancouver. Two weeks ago when we were in Vancouver, I had—two kayak lessons! Fun, Fun, Fun and more Fun! I had a review lesson on group rescues and solo rescues (you know, this is how you get back in your boat after turning over and falling out ...) and on edging and bracing (that is to prevent you from turning over in the first place). The second day was a "Rolling Clinic". Rolling is when the boat tips, and instead of getting out of the boat, you (in theory) right yourself and the boat with a combo of upper-body strength, a hip-flick, and complex paddle maneuvers. Remember, this is all accomplished while you are hanging upside down in dark cold water. Since this is one of the more challenging kayaking safety skills, we (in our lesson) spent the whole time with preparatory exercises for rolling. With the idea that “Practice makes Perfect” in my mind, I spent the next weekend on Lasqueti practicing my "pre-rolling exercises" in the hopes that one day, maybe, I will be able to do a complete roll. ☺

The particular two weeks spent in Vancouver, that are nominally the topic of this posting, I am volunteering at SFU (Simon Fraser University). I am working in the lab of a researcher, Dr. Karen Kohfeld, who studies interactions between the climate and the ocean. For more info see http://www.rem.sfu.ca/COPElab/index.html . I am helping with a variety of laboratory tasks, some of which are extremely tedious and others slightly less so. I type up data from published papers onto an Excel spreadsheet—so that is easily accessible for further analysis. When that highly monotonous task becomes unbearable, I can either identify or weigh foraminifera (known to their close friends as “forams”).

Forams are, umm, well, without the microscope they look like tiny round grains of sand. They are about the size of the pointy end of a needle, just big enough to see without magnification. Foraminifera are a large Phylum of amoeboid protists that create shells for themselves out of CaCO3 (calcium carbonate). Under the microscope some species appear as several globules stuck together in a spiral pattern, others are round, or have odd protuberances. You identify them by counting how many chambers they have, where or how many apertures (the opening in the shell) the Forams have, and which way the shells spiral. For more info see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foraminifera .

As you can imagine, weighing these guys is difficult. I weigh ten of them at a time. This includes moving them around from their microscope slide to a tiny foil tray on a balance and then back to a separate container. These lucky Forams are moved by sticking one at a time onto the end of a very fine paintbrush. They are weighed in micro-grams.

Fun, Fun, and Fun!!! Actually, I’m not joking! It really is fun, fun and fun. I am learning a huge amount. When last week started I had no idea Foraminifera existed—now I can identify species and see the variation between the different shapes of globules (sometimes anyway).
The individual tasks I am completing are not the most engaging in the world, but the atmosphere makes up for that. I love seeing how a lab is run, and learning how this type of research is accomplished. The projects underway are also extremely interesting—I love being a part of real live science. I know I sound like a total nerd, but that would be because I am one. And I’m proud of that!