First Day(s) In the Lab

Hi everyone! Because I am writing this on Thursday, I'm going to talk about my first week in the lab in addition to my first day. I am, of course, very excited to be working in Vertebrate Zoology with Karla, Dr. Watkins-Colwell, and Cesar, a grad student. We had a very successful first few days in the lab, and I am looking forward to the coming weeks and the work we will be doing.

My first day in the lab was Monday the 26th, and I met Karla, Cesar, and my PI at the Vertebrate Zoology lab located in the ES building adjacent to the Peabody. The first thing we did was walk through the facilities at that location, which included a shared lab space and an extensive storage room for a variety of wet collections. The storage room houses specimens from Ichthyology (fish), Ornithology (birds), and Herpetology (Reptiles/Amphibians). All of the samples are preserved in an ethanol solution, and kept in large glass jars with detailed labels.

Once we finished this tour of the main campus, we took the Yale shuttle to the West Campus, in Orange. This is the facility where we will be conducting our work this summer. At the West Campus we have a shared lab with entomology and two storage facilities. One is new, with recently purchased and subsequently empty storage cabinets. These cabinets are larger, newer, easier to use, and can roll to maximize storage. There are also 28 old storage cabinets. Our job over the summer will largely focus on the movement of specimens from the old to new facility.

After touring this facility, we headed to the lab and began our first task- labeling the new cabinets with special labels containing bar codes. Each drawer in each cabinet has a unique ID code and bar code, which can be searched electronically for ease of access. After we labeled the drawers, we began our second task, which lasted into the second day. Our job was to go through the old specimens and make sure every one had an updated label. Some of the specimens only had old labels, without bar codes, and some had absolutely nothing. Karla, Cesar, and I went through all 28 cabinets and recorded the identification numbers of those specimens so that we could print out new labels, our third task.

Every specimen has a unique identification code that allows researchers and scientists to locate it. The codes usually have a prefix to place the specimen in a specific field of research, such as ICH (Ichthyology) or HERR (Herpetology Reptile), followed by a zero and a five digit number. Ex: HERR.011783. All of these codes, as well as the information pertaining to the specimens, can be found on the labels and in the Yale online database. The labels contain the ID code, the bar code, and information about the specimen. They are printed with a laser instead of ink, so that they never fade and can be put in jars filled with liquid in the wet labs. The Yale database is an electronic catalog containing the info for every specimen in the Yale collections. Once we had determined which labels were missing, we used the online database to print new labels for the specimens. By the time we were finished, we had labeled every specimen in the old collections, with a few exceptions for specimens with absolutely no data. Since we have finished this job which was supposed to take multiple weeks in three days, we will be moving forward next week to start the transition of specimens between the old and new storage.

I genuinely enjoy working with Karla and Cesar in the West campus. So far we have gotten to see a fully preserved taxidermied Rhino, delicately reassembled frog skeletons, alligator bones, and so much more. The work we have been doing is meticulous, but still interesting. I am very much looking forward to the rest of the summer!