Tuesday, April 08, 2008

Help a young invertaphile out

I got this wonderful email the other day. It's wonderful on several levels - first, it's proof that someone actually reads this thing; second, the author, clearly an intelligent and sane individual, rightfully sees the "inherent" greatness of Aristotle's Lantern; and third, the author is a college-bound student that already has the drive and interest to work with inverts - and not your standard inverts either, but the Tardigrada (bonus video here). I would like to do what I can to help this student out, but all I could offer was that she contact the biology faculty at Mt. Holyoke. She agreed to let me post her request here in hopes that someone else might be able to offer more. Please take a read and leave any suggestions in the comments.

This is totally out of the blue, but I stumbled upon your argument for the wondrousness of the aristotle's lantern in Echinoderms. While I always thought this structure to be inherently greater than the radula, I found your vehemence intriguing. I took it upon myself to find out who you were, and upon seeing that you taught in Massachusetts, a thought occurred. I will be attending Mount Holyoke college in South Hadley, MASS beginning next year and am intensely interested in invertebrates (namely the Tardigrade). If you know of any research or intern positions for those with no college experience under their belt, I would be eternally grateful to obtain such information. I may be starting in the spring term (in 2009), so anything starting then, or even as soon as the summer, would be ideal.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Cue Mr. Holland's Opus.....

Are you going to wave at her from the Greyhound station? Will she return for the triumphant Captain Jim Snorkelfest when funding for your Department is cut? Oh.... I'm getting misty.....