Bit of an update from me...
As those of you who I've grumbled at will know, I've had to abandon all French fieldwork plans as there are just no tadpoles around for me to monitor at the fieldsites in the Pyrenees due to a freakishly cold winter/spring. So, instead of a rousing hike up to a montane lake to do my work, its now a sweaty commute on the tube to a ridiculously hot lab! Not quite the same. But the opportunity to see gorillas, komodo dragons or oh-so-creepy slender lorises at lunchtime compensates to some extent! (as does the subsidised bar...).
I'm still doing a project which is looking at chytrid disease in amphibians, but now its abit more about why in some areas the disease wipes out whole populations whereas in others they persist relatively unaffected. Its pretty interesting stuff but the associated evolutionary biology is hurting my brain quite alot!! Its been quite slow progress getting on with the lab work as I'm still waiting for samples (...*cough* dead tadpoles...) to do PCRs on, so I probably won't have my data together til August (the organised person within is starting to panic!) but I'm making slow but sure progress with the write up while I've got some time. I even shocked myself today by playing with some dummy data in R - Olivier would be proud!
So, other than the lengthy commute, things are going OK. Even if I am bitter than I'm not amongst eagles or marmots in the Pyrenees, or crayfish in the Yorkshire Dales, or cetaceans in Scotland, or Lyme disease in...OK, you get the picture!
Great hearing what everyone else is up to!
L
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