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First an explanation why I think I've been uncommunicative lately. A)
August and September are winter in terms of plants around here - nearly
everything is dormant because it is so dry. B) I've been writing like a
maniac at work and all the writing I do is reporting on our research. I
have to describe in detail everything we've done and what I think it means.
After doing that all day, it's hard to want to say it all again only in a
different way.
But I did have a nice interlude during my two months of writing. I have a
rather stressful pattern when it comes to analyzing the data. Usually I
just pick an analysis, run all the data and the results look pretty cool.
Then I realize that there's a flaw in the analysis method I chose. I freak
out, and run all the data again using another analysis method that is
COMPLETELY the wrong one. All the results look really different and I
freak out some more while I puzzle about what it means. Then I come to my
senses and realize that the first analysis method just needed a small tweak
to be the right one and I have to rerun all the analyses again, but the
results make more sense and are pretty close to the first set. It happens
every single time. I must be nuts. But anyway, the nice interlude
came during my freakout - we were revising another publication and one of
the illustrations was of tarplant seeds. A coworker and I spent a lot of time looking at the seeds
under a dissecting microscope, which magnifies the specimen about 25 times.
Wow. Talk about another world. The seeds had hairs of different patterns,
some were long and spindly, others were short and bristly. Some hairs were
branched, making them look like feathers. Each seed type had a consistent
pattern - the seeds from the common species were hairier than the rare
one's and the rays and disks were different too. Seeds can really look
amazing when magnified. There's a guy in California that has done a whole
key to the genus Eschscholzia (the one that California
poppy belongs to) based on the pattern of pits in the seeds.
I have said goodbye to that work for now, though. I am starting a new
adventure. More on that to come!
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