Research placements & internships

Saturday morning rolled around, bringing with it a change of scenery as today was the first day I stepped aboard the R/V (Research Vessel) Atlantic Explorer, BIOS’s research ship. I met Rod, chief scientist of this cruise and PI of the Bermuda Atlantic Time Series on board in the morning, and had the pleasure of meeting many of the BATS and AE techs and scientists over a delicious lunch prepared by the ship’s chef, Dexter. Alongside the regular BATS sampling and my own sampli

This week has been exceptionally sunny and calm for a March in Bermuda and so, determined not to let it go to waste, we decided to head out on BIOS’s dive boat, the Rumline, to do a little pilot sampling to test methods ahead of my first cruise aboard the R/V Atlantic Explorer later this weekend. The boat was heading out anyway with a group of undergraduates here for a ‘spring semester’, so another member of Team Microbe and I tagged along, carboys and cool boxes (for sample

With all this snorkelling, boat days and sunset cruises, you must be wondering, when am I actually going to do some work? But fear not, for I have (believe it or not) been working away during the trusty 9-5 to ready everything for our first expedition. This cruise is different from others I’ve been on since I’m going ‘alone’ (ie, not with anybody working on my same project), it’s testing my organisational and experiment planning skills to get everything ready. Doing science a

In case you couldn’t guess, if there’s one place I love to be, it’s in the water. And this evening I had the opportunity to witness and experience the underwater world in a totally different way: at night. Now whilst night dives are common, night snorkels are less so. But there’s something to be said about looking down at an absolute smorgasbord of life under the waves, and looking up to see stars, planets, and a blood moon rising (it was a full moon night!). Our evening star

Well hello there! You’ve stumbled across a special entry to my DPhil (PhD) diary, which is the first time I write to you from the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences , a marine research station nestled in the subtropical North Atlantic, in the middle of the Sargasso Sea, on a little island called Bermuda. If you’re here deliberately, I hope this blog, and subsequent entries, is everything you dreamed of (hi mum!!). If you’re here by accident, then welcome to a glimpse inside