Smithsonian Experience

Jama Holko's Smithsonian experience.

Things I did. Stuff I learned. People I met.

Raphael Ritson-William, 4656630 Ext 101, Research Assistant to Dr. Paul Raphael had several projects going, but the one I did the most work on had to do with various Caulerpa species of algae, from Belize. Some of the work done at the Smithsonian Marine station is done with hopes of preserving our reefs around the world. There is a Marine station in Belize and Raphael had done some diving there and had collected a number of species .

The object of my work was to determine what mass of the algae was due to organic extract and what mass was due to non-organic extract. Once my job was finished, fish squares would be made with the proper amount of organic compounds and inorganic compounds. They will then feed these to the fish community on the reef and see if they prefer one more than the other.

First, I had to grind the algae in a blender to break up the cells and place them in a solvent (an ethyl acetate and methanol mixture) Then, I weighed ten little vials to place the compounds once they were collected. The algae had to stay in the solvent overnight. The next day, the solvent and the algae extract were separated using a RotoVac. The same algae samples had to be soaked in solvent 3 times and then 3 times in water

Each time, they had to soak overnight. The RotoVac was always used for the extractions. At first, I was nervous about using this machine, but it was really quite simple, and by the end of the week I felt I was really quite the expert and even gave advice to a UF student who was working on his PhD. The extract was released from the sides of the flasks that attach to the RotoVac by pipeting a little solvent into the flask and then that was placed in the weighed vials. The vials were placed in a speed vac to dry off the small mount of solvent used to transfer the extract from the flask on the RotoVac to the vials. The extract from each day's extractions were placed in the vials and then dried down with the speed vac. There were times when the extract was hard to remove without using too much solvent. At these times, a sonicator was used to help release the extract from the sides. Once the extraction was completed the vials were weighed and the weight of the vial by itself was subtracted, giving the weight of the extract. In the meantime, the remains of the algae was dried and the dry weight of the algae was obtained. The % of the extract to dry weight was calculated on my last day.

Raphael also has a project where he takes pictures of Gorgonian species and matches up pictures of their dried skeleton. He wants to make it easier for people to classify marine organisms. I spent part of a day preparing 6 soft coral skeleton species to go under the SEM. This involved cleaning small pieces with bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and water. After they were cleaned and dried they were put in a Sputter Coater, which coated them with a fine layer of gold. Then, I sat with Julie Piraino at the SEM and picked out various skeleton parts. (such as sclerites, clubs, and rods) Julie took pictures of those parts. I also recorded information about them. Raphael had me label them with my initials since I prepared them. Apparently, he had some high school students from Lincoln Park help him with this project, in the past. It is a very time consuming project.

Inken Kruse: inken@sms.si.edu
Inken did research on parasites that infect crabs. At one point, she thought that a crab parasite was introduced into the Chesapeake Bay from Florida. Crabs were introduced to the Chesapeake Bay after they did a major clean up of the Bay. It had been quite polluted. Before the pollution there were no crab parasites in the Chesapeake. These crab parasites attach themselves to the crab in such a way that the crab can no longer reproduce.
The parasite is actually a barnacle but doesn't look like the barnacles we know. It is classified as a barnacle because one of its developmental stages is just like a developmental stage in the barnacles that attach to boats, rocks, bridges, etc. It is a softer, smooth white round bulb that attaches to the bottom side of the crab, opposite the pincers. It actually looks like two round bulbs.
Inken did genetic tests on the parasites from various locations in the Chesapeake Bay and on the West and Atlantic Coast of Florida. She found that the parasites in the Chesapeake, (although very similar in appearance) were very different in genetic make up from the Florida parasite. She now believes it is possible that they were brought in from Mississippi or Louisianna. She is presently trying to figure out how the parasite attaches itself to the crab.

The first day, I helped Inken, she taught me how to collect the parasites. We used a microscope and pipet to collect parasites. The parasites liked light so they would stream to the light and they could then be easily pipeted out and placed into a glass container. We also moved large fresh water bottles to a building out back where she does a lot of work with the crabs.
The second day, I helped Inken label plastic baskets and place crabs and placed shells in the baskets. These were placed in a new tank that will keep the water filtered and cleaned. It was a new system they were setting up to make her work a little easier. Inken said she would be interested in helping a student or two work on a crab project for science fair.

My last day, Inken and I went on a boat out to an oyster bed where the boat left us to collect crabs and shells for the crabs' homes. By then, I had dealt with dozens of crabs. The last crab I picked up, right before the boat came to pick us up grabbed my finger with its pincer. I grabbed for it and it got a finger on my other hand. I was "tied up" by a crab. I had truly gotten the full picture of the project. It was painful, and Inken tried her technique to get it to let loose but it wouldn't. I tried putting it in the water. That didn't work. It just wasn't letting go. I asked Inken, "What about some shells? Get me some shells." (They like to hide in shells.) She said that wouldn't work and tried her technique again but it didn't work. Finally, she reached up with her other hand, which had a glove on it, that had mud all over it from her collecting, and the crab let go and fell into the glove Sherry Reed - Drove the boat and helps with the Regional Science Fair. She has a lot of duties and knows a lot about the "going ons" at Smithsonian.

Julie Piraino - In charge of chemistry lab. She spoke with each new person about safety in the lab. New people are constantly arriving to do their projects. She also runs the electron microscopes. (scanning and transmission) Recently, a curator at the museum in Washington DC ran across some of Hassler's dinoflagellates collection in a Harvard paleo drawer and sent them to Julie to take pictures using the SEM. Since electrons are smaller than waves of light the electron microscopes can get more detail. The magnetic lense forces the electron beams in a straight line. The SEM can magnify up to 300,000X

Laura Bedinger - Instructor fom USF working on her PhD. She hypothesized that algae has a surface defouling agent and was at Smithsonian Station on a grant to try to find out if they do or not. She had just come back from an algae seminar in Alaska.

Linda - She was working on her masters. She was making a robot that would hopefully help scientists determine larvae sensory cues. It recorded salinity, temperature, pressure, and a lot more. She tested her robot the same day Inken and I were collecting crabs. She had a GPS and little yellow floaties attached to help her find it. We looked for it a long time after we were picked up from the oyster beds. We almost lost hope before she found it. She was working on this the whole time I was there. I know she had put a lot of work into it over the past year. She had to program it and make a case that would keep the water and pressure from damaging it, as it would be drug across the bottom.

Katherine - She was from Canada, but had done research in the Panama and will return there in the near future. Her research was on Cyanobacteria. She was trying to figure out if some organisms actually prefer to eat Cyanobacteria or if it is just a last resort food source.

Jason - was working on his PhD from UF . He was looking for chemicals from living organisms that could possibly be used as anticancer agents. He was a pharmacist in England before coming to study at UF.

Laura Diederick- Works as the education specialist at the Marine Ecosytem across the street. I briefly met her one day. Most of what she does with the school system right now, has to do with younger students but was willing to work with older students, as well.

Chromatography - 4 types introduced. 1) thin plate chromatography w/ silica base 2) HPLC- high performance liquid chromatography ( I never completely grasped how to use this.) 3.GCMS Gas chromatography mass spectrometry Just how the machine collected the sample was amazing. It had a little robot that picked up the sample, and enter the lid.

PCR polymerase chain reaction.

Dual Enrollment Classes offered.

Oceanography - Should be taken 1st of Junior year if possible.
Marine Biology
Marine Ecology

See more Photos at
www.holko.org

	Raphael Ritson-William, 4656630 Ext 101, Research Assistant to Dr. Paul Raphael had several projects going, but the one I did the most work on had to do with various Caulerpa species of algae, from Belize. Some of the work done at the Smithsonian Marine station is done with hopes of preserving our reefs around the world. There is a Marine station in Belize and Raphael had done some diving there and had collected a number of species .
The object of my work was to determine what mass of the algae was due to organic extract and what mass was due to non-organic extract. Once my job was finished, fish squares would be made with the proper amount of organic compounds and inorganic compounds. They will then feed these to the fish community on the reef and see if they prefer one more than the other. First, I had to grind the algae in a blender to break up the cells and place them in a solvent (an ethyl acetate and methanol mixture) Then, I weighed ten little vials to place the compounds once they were collected. The algae had to stay in the solvent overnight. The next day, the solvent and the algae extract were separated using a RotoVac. The same algae samples had to be soaked in solvent 3 times and then 3 times in water
	Each time, they had to soak overnight. The RotoVac was always used for the extractions. At first, I was nervous about using this machine, but it was really quite simple, and by the end of the week I felt I was really quite the expert and even gave advice to a UF student who was working on his PhD. The extract was released from the sides of the flasks that attach to the RotoVac by pipeting a little solvent into the flask and then that was placed in the weighed vials. The vials were placed in a speed vac to dry off the small mount of solvent used to transfer the extract from the flask on the RotoVac to the vials. The extract from each day's extractions were placed in the vials and then dried down with the speed vac. There were times when the extract was hard to remove without using too much solvent. At these times, a sonicator was used to help release the extract from the sides. Once the extraction was completed the vials were weighed and the weight of the vial by itself was subtracted, giving the weight of the extract. In the meantime, the remains of the algae was dried and the dry weight of the algae was obtained. The % of the extract to dry weight was calculated on my last day.
	Raphael also has a project where he takes pictures of Gorgonian species and matches up pictures of their dried skeleton. He wants to make it easier for people to classify marine organisms. I spent part of a day preparing 6 soft coral skeleton species to go under the SEM. This involved cleaning small pieces with bleach, hydrogen peroxide, and water. After they were cleaned and dried they were put in a Sputter Coater, which coated them with a fine layer of gold. Then, I sat with Julie Piraino at the SEM and picked out various skeleton parts. (such as sclerites, clubs, and rods) Julie took pictures of those parts. I also recorded information about them. Raphael had me label them with my initials since I prepared them. Apparently, he had some high school students from Lincoln Park help him with this project, in the past. It is a very time consuming project.
Inken Kruse: inken@sms.si.edu Inken did research on parasites that infect crabs. At one point, she thought that a crab parasite was introduced into the Chesapeake Bay from Florida. Crabs were introduced to the Chesapeake Bay after they did a major clean up of the Bay. It had been quite polluted. Before the pollution there were no crab parasites in the Chesapeake. These crab parasites attach themselves to the crab in such a way that the crab can no longer reproduce. The parasite is actually a barnacle but doesn't look like the barnacles we know. It is classified as a barnacle because one of its developmental stages is just like a developmental stage in the barnacles that attach to boats, rocks, bridges, etc. It is a softer, smooth white round bulb that attaches to the bottom side of the crab, opposite the pincers. It actually looks like two round bulbs. Inken did genetic tests on the parasites from various locations in the Chesapeake Bay and on the West and Atlantic Coast of Florida. She found that the parasites in the Chesapeake, (although very similar in appearance) were very different in genetic make up from the Florida parasite. She now believes it is possible that they were brought in from Mississippi or Louisianna. She is presently trying to figure out how the parasite attaches itself to the crab.
The first day, I helped Inken, she taught me how to collect the parasites. We used a microscope and pipet to collect parasites. The parasites liked light so they would stream to the light and they could then be easily pipeted out and placed into a glass container. We also moved large fresh water bottles to a building out back where she does a lot of work with the crabs. The second day, I helped Inken label plastic baskets and place crabs and placed shells in the baskets. These were placed in a new tank that will keep the water filtered and cleaned. It was a new system they were setting up to make her work a little easier. Inken said she would be interested in helping a student or two work on a crab project for science fair.
My last day, Inken and I went on a boat out to an oyster bed where the boat left us to collect crabs and shells for the crabs' homes. By then, I had dealt with dozens of crabs. The last crab I picked up, right before the boat came to pick us up grabbed my finger with its pincer. I grabbed for it and it got a finger on my other hand. I was "tied up" by a crab. I had truly gotten the full picture of the project. It was painful, and Inken tried her technique to get it to let loose but it wouldn't. I tried putting it in the water. That didn't work. It just wasn't letting go. I asked Inken, "What about some shells? Get me some shells." (They like to hide in shells.) She said that wouldn't work and tried her technique again but it didn't work. Finally, she reached up with her other hand, which had a glove on it, that had mud all over it from her collecting, and the crab let go and fell into the glove	Sherry Reed - Drove the boat and helps with the Regional Science Fair. She has a lot of duties and knows a lot about the "going ons" at Smithsonian.

Julie Piraino - In charge of chemistry lab. She spoke with each new person about safety in the lab. New people are constantly arriving to do their projects. She also runs the electron microscopes. (scanning and transmission) Recently, a curator at the museum in Washington DC ran across some of Hassler's dinoflagellates collection in a Harvard paleo drawer and sent them to Julie to take pictures using the SEM. Since electrons are smaller than waves of light the electron microscopes can get more detail. The magnetic lense forces the electron beams in a straight line. The SEM can magnify up to 300,000X Laura Bedinger - Instructor fom USF working on her PhD. She hypothesized that algae has a surface defouling agent and was at Smithsonian Station on a grant to try to find out if they do or not. She had just come back from an algae seminar in Alaska.
Linda - She was working on her masters. She was making a robot that would hopefully help scientists determine larvae sensory cues. It recorded salinity, temperature, pressure, and a lot more. She tested her robot the same day Inken and I were collecting crabs. She had a GPS and little yellow floaties attached to help her find it. We looked for it a long time after we were picked up from the oyster beds. We almost lost hope before she found it. She was working on this the whole time I was there. I know she had put a lot of work into it over the past year. She had to program it and make a case that would keep the water and pressure from damaging it, as it would be drug across the bottom.
Katherine - She was from Canada, but had done research in the Panama and will return there in the near future. Her research was on Cyanobacteria. She was trying to figure out if some organisms actually prefer to eat Cyanobacteria or if it is just a last resort food source.
Jason - was working on his PhD from UF . He was looking for chemicals from living organisms that could possibly be used as anticancer agents. He was a pharmacist in England before coming to study at UF. Laura Diederick- Works as the education specialist at the Marine Ecosytem across the street. I briefly met her one day. Most of what she does with the school system right now, has to do with younger students but was willing to work with older students, as well.
	Chromatography - 4 types introduced. 1) thin plate chromatography w/ silica base 2) HPLC- high performance liquid chromatography ( I never completely grasped how to use this.) 3.GCMS Gas chromatography mass spectrometry Just how the machine collected the sample was amazing. It had a little robot that picked up the sample, and enter the lid. PCR polymerase chain reaction. Dual Enrollment Classes offered. Oceanography - Should be taken 1st of Junior year if possible. Marine Biology Marine Ecology See more Photos at www.holko.org