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I’ve finally submitted my paper to the National High School Journal of Science. This has been such an interesting process. I came in with just a question and no idea how to even begin to answer it and now I have a fleshed out research paper full of new information I’ve learned. To be clear, it definitely wasn’t all smooth sailing. I had to completely restart with a new dataset, reframe my paper to address the limitations of using synthetic data, and constantly work to improve

So, there you have it. Those are the three patterns that we concluded from a year’s worth of research, and I feel pretty happy about how much we got done. I came into this project pretty skeptical about working with fish, and pretty confident that the only thing I would leave excited about was if we found a new species. And, yes, that was exciting to me and everyone who visited our poster. However, to be completely honest, I found it more interesting that we were able to conn

The first pattern that we identified after analyzing these haplotype networks was a pattern shared by all rainforest dwelling species that we sequenced. You might think that the six species of fish living in the Congo River basin would inhabit pretty similar environments; however, that actually isn’t the case at all. Take New York City. When people from elsewhere in the world think about living here, they imagine tall skyscrapers and bustling streets near Times Square. Sure,

A couple weeks ago, I presented this poster at our final science research colloquium. It went well. I cracked a few hilarious jokes here and there, people laughed, our poster looked super cool and had a really nice color scheme…anyway, the issue wasn’t getting people to come by. It was mastering explaining the complex networks—that I’m taking many blog posts to write about—in 2-3 minutes. It was especially nervewracking when the president of the entire American Museum of Natu

I know what you’re thinking. Why does this look like a crazy seating chart for a big family reunion where some people have to be a certain distance from other people in order to avoid violent fights while others may want to share a table and reminisce over childhood memories? Or you saw the large fish scattered between the networks and assumed that this had to do with fish, given that a lot of my prior blog posts have been about my research barcoding Congolese fish at the Ame

Salmonella bacteria https://www.fda.gov/food/foodborne-pathogens/salmonella-salmonellosis A year ago, my mother took me to the hospital. I had no idea that I would not leave that building until two weeks later. In advance, I’d like to warn readers that this post may stray a bit from my usual posts that give tidbits of my days at the museum and silly childhood memories. But, after all, it is the one year anniversary, so I feel like my two truths and a lie “no way” piece of i

If there’s one thing about me that you should know, it’s that I love taking photos and videos. From a young age, I’ve been giving tours around my house, recording videos on how to toast bread, attempting to do karaoke, putting on puppet shows, and taking hundreds and hundreds of selfies in the mirror. I like going back to photos to re-experience the moment whenever I’m feeling nostalgic. Last week, I was feeling especially proud of myself in the lab. My mentor, Pedro, was ver

At first glance, the above tubes look similar to popsicle molds, and I wouldn’t blame you for thinking so either. When I saw these tubes I was immediately reminded of the popsicles my mom used to make for me and my brother over long, hot New York City summers while we were growing up. I used to stand by her in the kitchen and watch her make a yummy purple smoothie, pour it into little ice-cream-cone shaped molds in a blue tray, and then put it in the freezer and tell me that