NEVBD SUMMER INTERNSHIP 2024 Blog - Ramsey Anis

 Much of my internship experience this summer has been devoted to time in the lab, looking at a microscope, and identifying mosquitoes. As I've spent more time behind the scope, I have come to realize there are life lessons to be gleaned from mosquito identification, and scientific work as a whole.  First, allow me to paint a picture for you of what sitting down and identifying mosquitoes actually looks like. I arrive to the lab in the morning, toting my coffee in one hand and my lunch in the other. I sit down at my stereoscope, twist on the illuminator, and flip the switch to turn on my cold plate. The cold plate allows for samples that I am looking at to stay cold and well preserved. Then, I venture over to the freezer (which is kept at a whopping -82 degrees F). I gather the samples I'll be working on throughout the day, and set them on the table next to my scope. These samples are kept on dry ice, so they stay frozen for the whole day even outside of the freezer. I take a c

 Hello everyone!  Long time no see! I haven't posted a blog in a few weeks, so I will be recapping the major highlights of the second, third, and fourth weeks of my internship experience. I have settled into a nice routine, and I spend much of my time visiting various different sites in the field. Twice a week I visit regular mosquito collection sites for the Cs. melanura study. One of the sites, I mentioned in my previous blog post, is in the northeast part of Vermont and is almost in Canada. The second site is in central Vermont, in and around Middlebury. So, two out five days each week are devoted to collection from these specific sites.  In mid-June we wrapped up our tick dragging efforts until the beginning of the fall. The last tick site I visited was perhaps one of the most pristine and remote areas I have visited yet. We drove on dirt roads for nearly 40 minutes deep into central Vermont. Once we arrived, I was taken aback by the sheer beauty of this place. Nestled in the v