Post by Jane Carskaddan (Colgate '24).

While Paul and the Gulf team were digging through sediment on their boats, I was back at Colgate hard at work on a different project. Together with biophysics professor Rebecca Metzler, I’ve been looking at the microstructure of shells from Paul’s archives to see if anthropogenic influences have changed the way bivalves grow their shells. My days in the lab aren’t as eventful as the rest of the group’s days in the field, but I still got to do a bit of traveling for my project this summer. I got the opportunity to go to Berkeley, California to gather data on my samples using an X-ray Photoemission Electron Microscope (XPEEM) at Berkeley Labs. An XPEEM is a very powerful microscope powered by a synchrotron, which is a type of particle accelerator. It's used for all sorts of things, but for my project we wanted to look at the different orientations of the crystals that make up my shells. So, Rebecca’s lab set out to California with a freezer of shellfish samples. I spent our free day exploring beautiful San Francisco with two of my labmates, Sarah and Gabe, where we saw sea lions, ate dim sum, and touched the freezing Pacific Ocean (much less welcoming than the Gulf). The next morning at 7 am was the official start of Rebecca’s time on the XPEEM. She had 48 straight hours and we had to make every second count. To tackle those hours, we split into pairs: Sarah and Edlin for the day shifts, me and Gabe for the nights. Rebecca would be up for the entire 48, a fact that made me think twice before complaining too much about my own exhaustion. So, Gabe and I reported to the synchrotron just as the sun was starting to set at 7 pm. You walk into the big pink building and are immediately confronted by huge machines with wires sprawling every which way. It's a little intimidating, but the fact that a lot of the equipment is covered in tin foil (to keep heat in) somewhat took away from that effect. The XPEEM itself doesn’t look like a microscope at all. If you look at the picture of me in front of it, everything behind me is the microscope. The sample sits inside one of the portholes. There’s also a giant wall of controls that was double my height. I only ever saw Rebecca adjust a few of them, so maybe they’re just there for show. Working on the XPEEM is largely uneventful and very slow - you run scans that take ten minutes and run the data through an image generating program that takes twenty. It takes hours to collect enough data for a whole shell. Edlin and Sarah spent their day on one of their samples of barnacles that they hoped would only take their shift to finish. We ended up working on that same sample for most of the night. I won’t lie, seeing how long those barnacles were taking was really frustrating to me. By the middle of the night I was so tired and just wanted to see the images of my shells. We finally got my first shells loaded somewhere around 5 am and produced a few images by the time my shift was over at 7 am. I was so excited after waiting all night that I almost wanted to stay longer and keep working, but my need for sleep outweighed that desire (by the time I got to bed I had been awake for almost 24 hours). The second night was more of the same, except this time I was well rested from sleeping all day and actually got to work on my shells for most of the night. We left California the next day after seeing the Golden Gate Bridge and took a few days to reset our sleep schedules. It was an exhausting experience, but for me it was worth it. I love microscopy and this type of data collection. I found myself feeling very comfortable surrounded by gigantic instruments at a particle accelerator in the dead of night. I legitimately hope that I will be able to return one day in some capacity, even if it means consuming a worrying amount of caffeine again.

Post by Charlie Filipovich (Colgate '23).

​Sitting on the deck of the R/V Apalachee, taking in the slightly salty breeze and enjoying the complimentary turbulence, there were two things on my mind: 1) thanking the creators of motion sickness medicine and aggressively spicy snacks, and 2) pondering options of how I can continue to do this after Colgate. As a rising senior, I can see the maroon light at the end of the tunnel, with the looming question of “what’s next?” pushing me ever closer to it.

I like to think of my academic journey thus far as its own experiment: much like this summer’s fieldwork, flexibility is required and you never know for certain what you’re going to discover. I knew I wanted to pursue a career in academia after Colgate, perhaps in the form of a PhD or Master’s program, but I wasn’t totally sure if paleobiology was the right field for me or if grad school was something I was truly interested in. With only classroom experience, I needed more data to test my hypothesis. This summer was the perfect opportunity to do so. ​

Post by Luke Calderaro (Colgate '22).

​Work days in Louisiana and Alabama were tough. Our days at sea were long, the Sun was a bright yet haunting constant, and our two boats sometimes felt extremely crowded. At the end of the first leg of our experience, I was looking forward to a bit of time on land. Not long after arriving in Hamilton, though, an unexpected eagerness to get back on the water overcame me. Given our time in Cocodrie and on Dauphin Island, I thought I was fully prepared for our time in Florida. Little did I know that the Sunshine State had a lot in store for us.

Post by Juan José Gómez (Colgate '24).

While in the Gulf this summer, the heat and humidity were not the only things by our side as we did fieldwork. Our lab group was fortunate enough to meet researchers in adjacent fields, as they joined us on some of our offshore days. Meeting local people, as well as taking time to explore the areas of Alabama, Florida, and Louisiana where we were based, exposed us to various cultures of the South (some aspects which were more discreet than others). We were also able to insert ourselves into the extremely fun world of marine research at the Florida State University Coastal and Marine Lab (FSUCML), Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium (LUMCON), and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). With every boat ride, came friendly faces which became voices of guidance as we talked about careers. Our conversations with people ranged from graduate students to tenured professors. Even while working in the blistering heat, we talked about preparation for graduate school applications and our futures beyond our academic careers. Most of these informal encounters happened on the boat as the seas rocked us back and forth, during dinner on outdoor swings, and in spaces at the marine labs. Some employees of the marine labs shared their journeys that brought them to where they are currently. These stories were made much more real by disclosing the mistakes that we can expect along the way. I enjoyed the conversations that we had and found them to be very influential in thinking about what I might do following my experience learning about marine invertebrates. There was never a dull moment when participating in fieldwork; most times I thought about how the work seemed more fun than I expected.

Post by Victor Unnone (Colgate '23).

Wherever we traveled seemed to bring a set of experiences that I felt was unique to each state. That being said, Florida brought me some of the most memorable experiences during our fieldwork. 

As I approached the R/V Apalachee, the first thought that entered my mind was how similar it was to a battleship. Its aluminum body glinted under the beating sun, blinding me when I stared directly at it and searing my palm as I touched it. The catamaran-style frame came to two points at the bow, which centered the logo of Florida State University that looked suspiciously like Colgate’s.

Post by Charlie Filipovich (Colgate '23).

Stepping on board the R/V Acadiana is when it finally hit me: “wow, we are actually doing this!” After months of planning and preparation, we were finally here, dressed like extras from Jurassic Park, ready to take on the dense, clay mud of the continental shelf. Much like most of my teammates, the only fieldwork experience I had prior to this moment was from various laboratory courses at Colgate. With the Age of Grad School Applications quickly approaching,  this exciting opportunity would allow me to become more confident in what areas I would like to further pursue and better understand what it is like to be truly immersed in the field of paleobiology. And oh was I immersed… in mud… lots of mud. And I loved every minute of it.

Post by Luke Calderaro (Colgate '22).

Prior to this trip to the Gulf of Mexico with the PaleoLab, I had little to no field experience. The laboratory activities and demonstrations I completed during my undergraduate career could only prepare me so much for work outside of the classroom. As someone who only recently accepted his intentions to pursue an advanced degree in the Earth sciences, my lack of experience often left me wondering if I was ready to launch into a PhD project that required fieldwork. I felt nothing but excitement when imaging days in the field, but a question kept nagging at my mind: Am I cut out for data collection outside of the lab?

Post by Juan José Gómez (Colgate '24).

Joining Colgate’s Paleobiology Lab was exciting, not only because it was my first time on the R/V Acadiana at LUMCON, but it was also my first time ever being on a boat! Aboard the research vessel, we traveled hours out into the Gulf of Mexico to gather examples of invertebrate marine life that reside there and also saw dolphins, sea turtles, and surf. Waking up early to leave the dock at 7 am was difficult for me, but what followed during the rest of the day was always something to look forward to. On the days the seas were in our favor, the Paleo Lab team would pass the time collecting sediment samples through a box core, sieving through our samples, and sorting through the living and the dead. The environment of the boat was a lot less intimidating than I had expected. With our Spotify playlist we all helped curate, the time on the boat seemed to fly by as we tried to sieve through the large amounts of silt, clay, and sand. The boat captains and lab staff that helped us were all very welcoming. Everyone made sure that we were content with accommodations everywhere we went, which I appreciated. The people we met at LUMCON and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab provided so much information; we were always learning more and more at each lab we visited.

Post by Adam Limoges (Colgate '24).

The difference in the diversity of living organisms between our Louisiana and Alabama sampling sites in the Gulf of Mexico was quite stark. In Louisiana, after sieving through mounds and mounds of silt and clay, you finally got your assemblage of live and dead organisms but found only a few common species of living bivalves. In Alabama however, the sandy seafloor sediment passed through the sieve in a flash, and the samples yielded a much wider variety of bivalves, with the species found in Louisiana present, but no longer dominant.

Post by Victor Unnone (Colgate '23).

Being able to do fieldwork is something that I always look forward to, as I get to travel to new places, be outside constantly, and refine and expand my hands-on skills. Our fieldwork consisted of traveling to Cocodrie, Louisiana and Dauphin Island, Alabama in order to sample sediments offshore on research vessels. We spent multiple days on the R/V Acadiana and the R/V E.O Wilson collecting sediment, rinsing it through sieves, and sorting through the live and dead bivalves to eventually ship these back to the lab at Colgate. On our days off, we were able to explore the areas where we stayed. Although these coastal towns were only a few hours apart, there are stark differences between them.