The plague of the Hebrews has struck the barge. Ok, I may be exaggerating a little bit. Not quite a biblical plague, but a mere cold/flu outbreak has reached the team here. Several PI’s and students have come down with some unpleasant symptoms but luckily for the rest of the group (and unluckily for us) we have been quarantined off in the sleeping quarters of the new lab to prevent the whole barge from going down (no pun intended!). Despite this minor setback in our ability to do field work, research has moved ahead! Today was a greatly successful day. After many attempts, those of us constrained to the indoors finally got the chemistry lab up and running! Several groups made it out onto the river and into the forest to collect samples, and a couple student projects started collecting data, an extremely exciting feeling! The cold weather has also been kind to us and kept the mosquitoes down, which is always a plus. So in spite of the fact that we are all feeling a little run down, the official start of the Polaris data collecting blitz has begun! Even as I sit here blogging in the infirmary (aka the new lab) my trusted advisor, who has been struck the hardest, sits surrounded by bags of fertilizer calculating nitrogen and phosphorous content through his feverish fog. Look for more project updates in the near future as our research gets up and running! p.s. – Mom, don’t worry, I promise I’m fine.