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

Epiplatys duboisi (pictured above) lives right alongside Congopanchax brichardi and Epiplatys chevalieri— same stretch of river, same environmental pressures. If habitat alone drove genetic diversity, you'd expect all three species to exhibit very similar complicated, structured patterns. But, if you look at the networks, E. duboisi's is comparatively simple and uniform — its populations are much genetically similar to each other (less nucleotidic differences) than the other

Now that we’ve discussed the rainforest dwelling species, it’s only fair that we move on to the river dwelling species so they don’t feel left out of the conversation. Congopanchax brichardi, Epiplatys chevalieri, and Epiplatys Duboisi are found in the marginal vegetation of small streams and rivers in areas exposed to the sun, which is very different than the canopy-covered rainforest we discussed the other three species living in. We found that the haplotype networks of the

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

Above is the notorious fish (Aphyosemion elegans) that seems to be trying really hard to mask its genetic identity from us—I would ask him why, but unfortunately all we have of him is dead pieces of tissue. All the other fish had ended up working pretty decently, so what was different about this one? I didn’t have an answer and neither did my mentor. The only thing left to do was to try and experiment with different temperatures and solutions to hopefully land on exactly what

Turns out, research isn’t a streamlined process. There are setbacks, and those setbacks can be annoying, especially after you’ve sat for forty minutes on a stool waiting for DNA molecules to run through a gel and getting excited to see a visual product of months of hard laboratory work. As mentioned in the last post, we were testing two primers and seeing which one would work better for this DNA. As I sat there, listening to the low hum of the lab’s air conditioner, I prayed

To nerds like me who find any part of the DNA barcoding process worthy of being labeled “cool,” I think it can go without saying that running gels is the coolest part. You probably have some questions - gel? Like for nail polish? And where are they running? I don’t blame you, it’s a little confusing. The scientific process is called Gel Electrophoresis, which, in simpler terms, means running an electric current through a gel made of agarose in order to move DNA molecules (whi

It’s finally my favorite time of the year, the holidays! It finally snowed last weekend and I got the chance to play in the snow with my family, which made me feel a little bit like a kid again. I still regularly attend the museum every Tuesday and Thursday, and I can feel a little bit of that holiday spirit in the air. People are wearing red sweaters and I’ve attended two parties, a museum-wide holiday party and a vertebrae christmas party—words you’ll only hear in an instit

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

Before we moved to our new house ten blocks north, my family used to live in a two-bedroom apartment on 79th and Amsterdam. Although the move was a few years ago, I still find myself reminiscing about that home, where I spent the majority of my childhood. One particular memory is eating weekend dinners at the Indian restaurant Saravana Bhavan under our building. What my brother and I looked forward to most were the little seeds coated in sugar, called saunf, that were meant t

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

In the spirit of Halloween, I felt inclined to revisit something a little bit spooky—little glow-in-the-dark stars in petri dishes. To the average human, it is apparent that these little “stars” only seem to be glowing in the top petri dish and not the bottom. Was this a mistake? Wouldn’t it be cooler if the stars in the other dish were glowing as well? Turns out the stars are actually Escherichia coli bacteria—one genetically modified to glow just like jellyfish do. Yeah, yo