Happy November, everyone! Last week I wrote an open letter to all of you applying early decision, which I hope proved helpful and/or reassuring to a few of you. But that means you’re not just two weeks behind on weevil updates, and all the cool stuff I’m doing in lab and the fact that I have a major advisor now (!!!) …you’re two Wellesley weeks behind. A week here might as well be a month for all that’s packed into it. Let’s catch up.
The weevils are doing well. We just got a new shipment that arrived last week, and they’ve been super active. We sent our older DNA off to be sequenced, but it turns out it might just be too old…a lot of the primers failed to attach. It’s kind of my first encounter with scientific failure, things going wrong without really knowing why, but that’s the reality of doing science (or so I tell myself), and I’m trying not to take the results too personally. We’ve started doing RNA extractions, meaning that I got to extract RNA (for weevils) and DNA (for Evolution lab) in the same week!
But Eleanor, what’s a weevil?
More on Evolution lab, because we’ve started our final project, and it’s SUCH a cool one. It’s always cool when you get to do something that relates to humans, and this time we’re sequencing the gene for lactose intolerance. I got to awkwardly pass my DNA collection swabs around the dinner table, to understanding science-major friends. Since lactose intolerance evolved independently in certain areas of the world (like Europe), but didn’t in others (like East Asia) we’re testing to see if our data supports the hypothesis that humans originated in sub-Saharan Africa and then migrated outwards. I remember reading about testing mitochondrial DNA to confirm the out of Africa hypothesis three years ago for AP world, and thinking wow, that’s amazing. Now I’m actually doing it. Another “pinch me” moment, courtesy of Wellesley.
In other news, I have a major advisor now. This is one of those things that seems really difficult when you’re a prospective student…like, professors are so smart? And I have to talk to/ be friends with one? But in my experience, it was pretty easy. I had taken an Introductory Cell Bio seminar with my now-advisor already, and there were only six people in the class, so we knew each other pretty well already. We set up a meeting to talk classes for next semester, and I just kind of asked. There was laughing and chocolate involved, and not an overwhelming amount of “so, what do you want to do with your life?” And then voila! I had a (tentative) schedule for next semester, which was quite a relief.
Non-science related updates: the possum paper I wrote for Philosophy was quite a hit, which was a welcome bit of positivity. Violin juries are coming up next month, and so I’m aiming to have the whole Havanaise ready to perform, although to be honest, most of that’s riding on the fact that my tenths are somewhat in shape by then. Juries in the fall are pretty chill though, so most of that is just self-pressure…it’s such a lovely piece, and I want to do it justice.
Step inside my favorite practice room
I hope you too are enjoying this gorgeous uncharacteristically warm fall weather (if you have it!). I’ll be back with more updates next week. Until then…
Ever lovely yours,
Eleanor