New book

Here is the first draft of very great book on chilean underwater fauna, with a particularly interesting zoanthid chapter ;o)

The main authors of the book, Vreni and Gunther, with me in the middle...

News from Europe

Takuma was definitively the most successful in histology!

After obtaining successful results withTakuma and Yanagi-san in Chiba, I had a wonderful flight over snowy Siberia (now I really want to go there!) and finally landed in Geneva before heading to the World Marine Biodiversity Conference in Valencia (Spain).

La Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, the conference site with great architecture

European way of moving around

The conference is great, unfortunately I would need some help as there is three session running in parallel and I still did not find a non lethal way to divide myself in three parts.

Two thumbs up for the auditorium with an aquarium background, when in some very rare cases the talks get boring it is fun to watch the fishes.

Lab meeting 2008.11.5

Short and sweet today.
Present: YM, YI, MH, YS, YH, CA
Absent: FS, TF (Chiba), MO (Tokyo), ES (Yokohama)

1. Internet - no illegal downloading please! Big Brother is evidently watching.
2. Car accident last weekend on the university loop - be careful, especially after rain.
3. Tank manager this week is YI.
4. Any lab things needed? Pincettes (ES and YM), light (MH), waterproof notes (all), specimen labels (how much?).
5. Taiwan/Aus collaboration potentail - check www.koryo.or.jp, and also discuss at JCRS.
6. Two 2nd year students are interested in our lab, so please invite them as buddies for trips to the ocean, and they can help while learning about our lab.
7. YM - presentation on glitter orchids - great! Thanks.
8. JDR back from Aus, great time!

Next week YI and Churaumi pix.

Today's picture is a giant giant clam (70 kg maybe) at the GBR, taken by JDR last week.

Histology

Here are some pics of Chiba, where TF and I (FS) are learning histology with Yanagi-sensei who is a very good professor. We are both totally enthusiastic with histology and nematocysts studies as we can see "immediate" results and it's quite fun to do.

Takuma concentrated on the selection of the polyps to cut.
In counterpart we showed Yanagi-san DNA extractions, and we will show him PCRs in the next days.
We enjoyed to go get some samples while the polyps were getting embedded.

Smily happy fish in the collection of the Chiba Museum
Smily fishes in my plate, in the menu: blue marlin, katsuo (the one on the way back to south, supposed to be different than the one from spring) and some other delicious fishes.

Now the polyps are embedded, the paraffin is hard so we need to trim our paraffin block and fix them so tomorrow we can start cutting, it looks easy but it is real art and f.....g difficult (at least for me and my two left hands).
Tomorrow will be a very long day slicing polyps and hoping that the sand will not mess everything...

In the news

Our Corallizoanthus work made the Okinawa newspapers, front page in one. Here are the links on the net (in Japanese - be warned):

http://ryukyushimpo.jp/news/storyid-137736-storytopic-1.html
http://www.okinawatimes.co.jp/news/2008-11-02-M_1-021-1_002.html

Nice to have get some publicity on the lesser-known organisms!

New additions to the library

Here are new books in the lab library:

1. Corals in Space and Time - JEN Veron.
2. AIMS Annual Report 2007.
3. Soft Corals and Sea Fans - K Fabricius & P. Alderslade
4. Hermatypic Corals of Japan - JEN Veron
5. Forgot the title (YI has it) but Surveying Methods of Coral Reefs or something like that, by S. Englsih et al.

JDR back from Aus

Hi all,

Back from Aus and a great meeting at AIMS, with a layover in Taipei and discussion with Allen Chen. Here are my thoughts/news/ideas on things in no particular order:

1. Marine biodiversity is getting a big push, not only in reefs, but in other areas, like the deep, lagoons, continental plains, etc. FS was right that we need to dive in "less beautiful" places!
2. Technology is going to be huge in the near future. This is obvious, but things like AUVs and ROVs, remote sensors, etc. will change how we measure biological data. We need to get on the wave.
3. Japan is VERY far behind in some areas, particularly education of university-level students, and facilities. Ryudai and almost every other university I have seen here would be put to shame by what is happening in Aus. I hope someone higher up in Japan wakes up before it is too late! One concrete example: use of the internet and computers as a teaching tool. Japan is still in the 70s or 80s...
4. We are also way behind, or perhaps a lost cause, in terms of management. GBR management, while imperfect, is miles ahead of what happens here. Perhaps I will become an eco-warrior. Someone has to drag us out of the Stone Age.
4b. Well, at least Japan and JAMSTEC are miles ahead on deep-sea stuff...
5. Great researchers in Aus, hope to get there again.
6. Dr. Carden Wallace and the Tropical Queensland Museum have a great coral collection. Wow.
7. Dr. Allen Chen and his lab are active, fun, and would be a great place for any of us to go do some workshops or research. We need to think of some great ideas we can work on together.

Today's pic is of a massive humphead wrasse on Wheeler Reef on the GBR.