Another sampling day

Today we went out sampling again, took us a very short time of about 2-3 hrs. Really nice since it was so cold and overcast, certainly different than the warm and sunny first day. I admit I didn't do so well at the second station because of the large swells tossing the little boat around... but we had already done all the water collection and we were about to leave, so I didn't contaminate any of the samples we got.

This time I am adding a new experiment, collecting RNA from the water to look at activity in other ways than only the microFISH technique I normally use. I still have all the regular incubations going plus this, so it's a busy day. The good thing is I feel a bit more prepared and less like I am "drowning". Heh.

We also got some results yesterday from a big experiment we did. They look pretty good, I am impressed! I already see a couple of interesting results- yes the bacteria are using the compounds differently. It's hard to make any conclusions (in fact we can't make any with just one experiment) so I won't try to.

The whole station smells of the fresh baked cookies they made (actually they make them everyday). I love that I have a warm home, warm food, warm bed every night while I am down here. It's so comforting!