Welcome to the Streams of Consciousness Research Blog!
The three of us sat crossed legged on the bank of Pringle Creek, a small stream that runs below a pedestrian overpass next to the hospital in Salem, Oregon. Clad in sandals and rain coats with hoods pulled up over our faces, we hunched over small plastic bins filled with water and stream debris. We each had a small net and a bucket next to us as we stared intently into the bins, occasionally sweeping something up with our small fish nets. The staff and patients from the hospital observed us curiously as they took their evening walks or smoke breaks.
“Hey, what are you guys doing down there?” an older gentleman called to us over the sound of the stream, rain, and nearby traffic.
“We’re catching mayflies,” Liz replied.
“Caught any?”
“About a hundred.”
“Oh,” the man replied. He seemed confused. He must have thought that mayflies were some kind of fish.
Mayflies are ubiquitous in Pringle Creek; we only needed a few tubs to collect a couple hundred. Liz, Anya, and I were catching them in their larval phase, a phase that can last anywhere between two weeks and two years, during which they live in streams, clinging to rocks during the daylight and drifting at night. They are small, only about 3 – 20 mm in length during the larval phase. When they are nearing the end of their life they emerge from the water, transform into the winged phase of their life, reproduce, and subsequently die.[1]
We are collecting these insects as part of a Mellon-funded Liberal Arts Research Collaborative project in which we will be exploring the ideas of artificial light and its ecological effects through creative as well as scientific projects. There are six people involved in this collaboration; Liz Perkin, a professor of biology; Stephanie Lenox, a professor of English; Tyler Griswold, a senior English major; Jo Hernandez, a senior Biology major; Anya Romig, a junior Biochemistry major; and Alex Wert, a senior Chemistry major.
The scientific side of the project will be an investigation of how mayflies that originated from streams that are exposed to artificial light drift differently than mayflies that originated from pristine, dark streams. We will transport the insects into an artificial stream built in our lab and measure their drifting patterns.
The creative side of this project will culminate in a podcast, a video, a scientifically written article, and this blog. Our goal is to share our experiences through storytelling in a way that makes our scientific research accessible to an audience untrained in higher level science, while examining the ideas of nature and artificial light.
Come back again to read more as our ideas, experiences, and mayflies emerge over the course of the summer.
[1] McCafferty, W. Patrick. Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermen's and Ecologists' Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives. Boston: Jones and Bartlett, 1998. Print.
“Hey, what are you guys doing down there?” an older gentleman called to us over the sound of the stream, rain, and nearby traffic.
“We’re catching mayflies,” Liz replied.
“Caught any?”
“About a hundred.”
“Oh,” the man replied. He seemed confused. He must have thought that mayflies were some kind of fish.
Mayflies are ubiquitous in Pringle Creek; we only needed a few tubs to collect a couple hundred. Liz, Anya, and I were catching them in their larval phase, a phase that can last anywhere between two weeks and two years, during which they live in streams, clinging to rocks during the daylight and drifting at night. They are small, only about 3 – 20 mm in length during the larval phase. When they are nearing the end of their life they emerge from the water, transform into the winged phase of their life, reproduce, and subsequently die.[1]
We are collecting these insects as part of a Mellon-funded Liberal Arts Research Collaborative project in which we will be exploring the ideas of artificial light and its ecological effects through creative as well as scientific projects. There are six people involved in this collaboration; Liz Perkin, a professor of biology; Stephanie Lenox, a professor of English; Tyler Griswold, a senior English major; Jo Hernandez, a senior Biology major; Anya Romig, a junior Biochemistry major; and Alex Wert, a senior Chemistry major.
The scientific side of the project will be an investigation of how mayflies that originated from streams that are exposed to artificial light drift differently than mayflies that originated from pristine, dark streams. We will transport the insects into an artificial stream built in our lab and measure their drifting patterns.
The creative side of this project will culminate in a podcast, a video, a scientifically written article, and this blog. Our goal is to share our experiences through storytelling in a way that makes our scientific research accessible to an audience untrained in higher level science, while examining the ideas of nature and artificial light.
Come back again to read more as our ideas, experiences, and mayflies emerge over the course of the summer.
[1] McCafferty, W. Patrick. Aquatic Entomology: The Fishermen's and Ecologists' Illustrated Guide to Insects and Their Relatives. Boston: Jones and Bartlett, 1998. Print.