We did it! Somehow Dr. Dave Sandstrom (University of Maryland) and I managed to put together this makeshift molecular biology lab in the garage of our field station. It may not look like much, but we will be extracting DNA from marine slugs and a variety of green algae here. The aquaria will be part of a separate experiment in our project where we will keep some slugs in light and some in the dark to prevent the kleptoplasts from photosynthesizing. The idea is that the sea slug Elysia diomedea may use kleptoplasty as part of a defense mechanism in which it makes its mucus less palatable to predators. This project seems pretty appropriate for a group of high school students, the only thing that worries me is the lack of time we will have to conduct our experiments. 

So, I decided to take a position as a Directed Research Fellow with the Ocean Discovery Institute. The way I see It, graduate school will take up most of my time, so this is an opportunity to spend my last summer doing what I love—doing science with hood kids. ODI is an organization that works out of City Heights, the one neighborhood in San Diego that reminds me of those where I grew up. I am now in Bahia de Los Angeles about to spend the next five weeks sleeping in a cot in 100-degree Fahrenheit weather. I’m looking forward to getting to know my crew! I’ve only met with them twice before, but they seem like a group of awesome kids! We are the photobiology team and we will be looking at the evolutionary benefits of kleptoplasty in a marine sea slug Elysia diomedea. Wish us luck!