Gwyneth Tefft, Entry #5, Last Week :(

I can't believe how fast this experience has gone by! It seems like just last week I was getting moved in and now I'm leaving. Throughout my time here at Berkeley, I have learned more than I ever could have imagined about research and I truly do feel like an ant expert now.
The past few weeks in the lab have been spent working on Brian's project and doing data analysis. I never realized how bad I am with computers until I was asked to make a graph of the results from the desiccation trails on an excel spreadsheet. Of course Brian had to walk me through everything, and even then I got confused, but I eventually figured it out. We also got results from the SPME trials and it was clear that Argentine ants release higher amounts of iridomyrmecin when distressed compared to when no threat is present. This suggests that this compound is an alarm pheromone, but still further research needs to be done in order to prove this.

This chart compares the control SPME trails (non-agitated ants) to the treatments (ants fighting each other) 

I am sad to leave my lab and everyone I've been working with behind. One of the most valuable things about this experience has been being surrounded by such smart, motivated people. From listening to my grad students speak about interesting papers they've read, to discussing their newest projects they're working on, I have learned so much about the world of science!