Introductions

My name is Natalia, I'm 19 and from New York.  I'm a junior at the University of Scranton.  I am biology major on a research track.  At school my research is birds, specifically the Common Yellowthroat.  I'm interested to see if the bird's health is reflected in the reflectance from its feathers.  The Common Yellowthroat's color is from excess carotenoid pigments, which are first used as antioxidants in the immune system.  After the reflectance data is processed, I will be looking at blood smears from each bird whose feather I collected data from.  I will be looking at the white cell and blood parasite counts as a further indicator of health.  Then I will try to find correlations between reflectance, white blood cell count, and blood parasite count.  This semester I will either learn how to differentiate white blood cells or learn how to use the microscope for blood parasite counts. 

This blog is not about my bird research (yet*).  This blog is about my internship at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences.  The internship starts tomorrow and goes until August 10th.  I don't really know what to expect from it.  I'm not researching birds at this internship.  I'm researching beeflies, a group of insects which I don't know anything about.  I'm in a state that I'm sort of familiar with, a city I've never been to, using a bus system for the first time researching a bug I don't know anything about at a place I haven't been to before, and I have to keep myself alive for two months.  What have I gotten myself into?  I honestly have no idea.  It will be an experience, good or bad, time will tell.  I will try to write again tomorrow to about my first day at my internship.  

*I'm hoping to win a fellowship so I can do more bird research next summer at Scranton.