Science in the City

Besides packing up, and reviewing the last-minute plans to rendezvous for the trip up to Green Island, Friday was spent reviewing papers and looking at websites on the topic of the DNA barcoding.  This left some extra time to visit other departments of the campus I haven’t had an opportunity to suss out, yet.

One of them was the Astronomy department, which apparently doesn’t operate a robust local viewing schedule.  Most of the students enrolled in degree programs through JCU have access to a ’scope somewhere away from Townsville, and so there really isn’t a need for an observatory here.  It’s a pity, since the skies are so much clearer than what we’ve been getting through the Rooftop Variables program back in light-polluted NYC.  My kingdom for a schmidt-cassegrain!  Anyhow, there’s an amateur group that meets in town, and though we just missed their public viewing night on the first, we’re hoping to meet someone somewhere to see the stars from down here.  Worst case scenario, I’ve printed the July starmap for this hemisphere, and can just use my binoculars.

Scott’s lab mates were taking a break outside, so I joined them and was quickly involved in the conversation about the reef conditions around Townsville, as well as at the research sites JCU uses on Green Island (where I’ll be) and the Low Isles.  His supervising researcher graciously took us around to visit the wet lab area behind the School of Marine and Tropical Biology building.  Before joining the staff at JCU as a reseaBesides getting a tutorial on important reef-community algaes, we also were given safety tips for what is and isn’t safe on reef flats, and the basic first aid procedures to follow should one encounter something nasty on the beach.  Fortunately, most of the stuff to worry about is either: A. overhyped by the Discovery Channel, B. not common in the sites we’ll be visiting or C. out of season.  Though it was daunting to think of all the stuff that can sting, bite or otherwise pierce you over here, it’s empowering to know how to avoid or mitigate the bad stuff to enjoy the wonder that is the Great Barrier Reef.  Later, on the way to dinner, groups of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos and Corellas flew across the dusky skies.  In Florida, we say that people who visit and fall so in love with the place have gotten ’sand between the toes’…. it makes me wonder what the anipodean equivalent is.