Blog #1:
First blog and there really isn't much to say. How much experience can a person gain in just a few days of work? A couple tours here in there plus the usual tedious assignments every intern must go through. Interning at a government run center has its quirks. The Southeast Fisheries Science Center certainly lives up to its name. Everywhere you look there are paintings and pictures of marine specimens, not much unlike the halls of MAST Academy. By far the most interesting room is the necropsy lab where people take poor dead marine mammals apart for study. I have yet to witness the process, but I've seen my fair share of pictures.
Most of my time here so far has been spent filing. Though it's hardly what you'd typically call filing. Not unless you're used to handling the teeth of a once living, breathing dolphin. These teeth are placed into bags with assigned field numbers that are then placed in their proper locations for future reference. What experience have I gained from this? Lots and lots of patience. As for knowledge, did you know baby dolphin teeth are hollow? And that they fill up as they get older? You can tell that a dolphin is old by their really dull filled teeth.
Blog #2:
Friday and I'm almost free for the weekend. My assignments this week have consisted of more filing. I've moved passed teeth and gone on to tissue. Did you know they take dolphin tissue from their different organs and put them in these little wax covered blocks? My fingers still feel slippery from all the wax. These blocks are organized by assigned numbers for each animal and a letter for the organ. It's tedious work organizing them, but I don't think I've ever come this close to touching a dead marine mammal. Dissecting rats in an AP Biology class doesn't count.
My mentor's name is Dr. Ruth Ewing and she's a really cool low maintenance person. She's done a good job with keeping me busy all week. In fact, I get to stay overtime today so I can help out with a presentation being held for some high school summer program. I'm supposed to "help out," but I'll probably be doing more learning than helping.
3 Hours Later
Well that was fun. I got to watch several "educational" presentations from a whole new perspective. I also learned that it's not any less boring when you know the one presenting. My mentor did a good job at being humorous though. I took some pictures of the specimens laid out for the students. I'll post those up later.
