The End Is Drawing Near
All signs point to the ending of the Howard Hughes fellowship and my imminent departure: My poster is all but completed; I’ve commenced the initial stages of packing; and my roommates and I are cleaning out the fridge (“So guys, what can we make with half a pond of ground beef, a squash, and cinnamon raisin bagels?”). Another indication that the final days are upon us is the fact that there’s only one more guest lecture scheduled for us to attend. I’m really looking forward to it, because these talks have really enriched my HH experience.
I’ve occasionally joked that I get less out of the talks than some of my fellow fellows do, since the talks have been mainly medical/ cell bio in nature and I play in the zoological/ organismal bio arena. However, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Our guest speakers have given me a great introduction to some of the cutting-edge research being done in the medical field these days. I’ve learned so much about the current issues affecting human health, and I feel like a much more informed member of the scientific community for having attended these talks. Not to mention, I’m constantly astounded by how many top-notch scientists call Duke home.
While I’m certainly looking forward to spending a few weeks at home before classes begin, I’ll miss being here (I’m almost sad that my project is completed!). However, I’m excited about our final week, and invite anyone who cares to come to our poster session this Friday from 10:30-12:00 in the LSRC. Cheers!
P.S. I almost forgot that not everyone who reads this blog will end up at the poster session! Perhaps i should share the results of my reserach, huh? I won't go into detail (to entice you to come to the poster session :-) ) but good news! My data indicate that females do discriminate between plastic (immature) and first-year crystallized (mature) song, and they prefer crystallized! Huzzah! That, combined with the fact that they didn't show much discrimination between first- and third-year crystallized song , could support to the theory that female song preferences for song evolved mainly to help females discrimnate between mature and immature males, since mature males would probably be better mates. Isn't science cool? :D
