The Bifax DNA, She Is Being Sequenced

At least I hope that's the case. I drove to Tuscaloosa yesterday and handed over our purified, amplified DNA for sequencing to the Molecular Systematics Lab at Bryant Hall. I hadn't seen Phil Harris since the St. Louis ASIH meeting, so it was nice to chat. I also talked with Bernie Kuhajda and Michael Sandel. Bernie thanked me for telling them last year that Tuscumbia darters can be found in lower Limestone Creek. They collected 30(!) in the area I pointed them to. One of the doctoral students there is doing his dissertation on Tuscumbias, a likely candidate for Federal protection in the near future. Michael will be at the ASB meeting later this week in Birmingham, making a presentation in the same session I will on Friday morning. He will, of course, talk about Elassoma pygmy sunfish.

It was refreshing to visit this extended lab group. They have most of a floor in an academic building, with the same broad interests I have. Not feeling like a freak or oddball was enjoyable.

My big plan in this busy week: keep plugging away at boiling down Enrique's thesis into journal format. I still have to read the editor's Authors instructions before I attack the Results section.