Namibia Day 2 -- Introducing the Crew

Hi again! Since you folks are back in school, I figured it was time to get the blog back up and running. Lots to share! I will finish the Namibia posts first, but then you can look forward to stories from British Columbia and Hawaii!

Day 2 in Namibia brought the chance to really meet the other folks in the group. We were all much perkier after sleeping off our jet lag and were excited to get on the road. We piled all of our gear into the trucks (five trucks and one trailer) and after running a few errands, headed south out of town. We spent most of the day driving to our field site, so this is probably a good time to introduce you to the crew. Here is a picture...



Back Row:
Nicola...Loves early trace fossils...Just finished her PhD at Oxford in the UK
Me...You guys already know about me...like my goofy hat?
Soren Jensen...Our expert in Cambrian trace fossils, currently on the faculty at the Universidad de Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.
Gordon...A groovy Geochemist...Just finishing a Post-Doc at MIT
Mike...Tries to understand microbial evolution...A Post-Doc at Caltech

Middle Row:
John Abelson with the Agouron Foundation...This is the man who helped to make this whole trip possible! Yay!
Joannah...Studies both ancient rocks on Earth and reconstructs environments on Mars...a PhD student at Caltech
Patrick...Loves microbial carbonates...a Post-Doc at the University of Southern California
Phoebe...Fascinated by events leading up to the Cambrian explosion...a PhD student at Harvard
John...Obsessed with plants, both ancient plants and modern plants...also a PhD student at Harvard

Front Row:

John Grotzinger...Loves to study sediments, especially carbonates...one of our fearless leaders and on the faculty at Caltech
Andy Knoll...is a Paleontologist who probably knows about dinos, but is tackling the larger issue of the evolution of life on Earth, particularly early Earth...another one of our fearless leaders and on the faculty at Harvard
Kevin...Works on Europa (well, not ON Europa...but he does study Europa)...a PhD student at Stanford

As you can tell from these very very brief descriptions of what each person studies, we are a very diverse group of people! Some are mostly biologists, some are chemists, some are geologists, some are paleontologists, but each person shares an interest in Geobiology. The whole group wants to understand how life evolved on Earth. Bringing together such a diverse group of people is probably the best way to do science! We work as a team and each person contributes their unique perspectives and experiences.

Namibia - Getting there is half the fun (?)

After a day of frantic packing and trying to cram all of my gear into one duffle bag and a day pack (for those of you who want to be impressed, that was a tent, sleeping bag, thermarest, fleece, jacket, boots, rock hammer, field books, background reading, emergency supply of granola bars, all the little details like headlamps, first aid supplies, etc, and of course my two pairs of pants, shorts, three shirts, and not enough socks)... After packing I headed for the airport at about 9 pm. My flight left Sacramento at 11 pm and arrived in Atlanta at about 6 in the morning. After a nap in the Atlanta airport I boarded a 19 hour South African Airlines flight for Johannesburg, South Africa. The nice thing about international flights is that you get your own personal movie screen with movies on demand, and South African Air even gives you socks to wear during the flight. The bad thing is, of course, being stuck in a tiny space for 19 hours. I only went slightly crazy as I watched loads of really bad movies. From Johannesburn (which everyone calls Joburg) I boarded a 2 hour flight into Windhoek, Namibia. I was greeted at the airport by my lovely friend Nicola who is from the UK, and we made our way to the hotel where we met up with the rest of our group. Who is this group of people? I am going to make you wait in suspense for that one....they deserve a blog entry of their own.

Although each of us wanted nothing more than to get some sleep, science always comes first! One of our trip leaders, Andy Knoll from Harvard University, treated us and the Geological Survey of Namibia to a talk about some of the most recent data from the Mars Exploration Rover Missions. Yep, those little rovers are still going! For the latest MER mission highlights check out http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html.

After discussing mars, we headed to dinner at a fun local restaurant where most of us tried the local game. Just as in the US where we can eat buffalo and deer in addition to beef, in Namibia you can eat oryx, kudu, and zebra. I even tried crocodile, which was really fishy and definitely not my favorite! When we finished stuffing ourselves, we finally made it back to the hotel and were able to catch some much needed sleep.

Back from Namibia!

I made it! I arrived back in California on Sunday morning after about 30 hours of traveling. Phew! Since then I have been doing laundry, cleaning my gear, and trying to get back in the swing of things here in Davis. I am excited to share all of my adventures with you, but I had so many that it will take a series of posts. I always keep a journal when I travel, so I will transcribe bits for you at a time.

Oh, and before I forget, I would like to extend a great big thank you to Nina for keeping up the blog while I was away! I always enjoy her tales of vet school, so hopefully she will continue to contribute stories to this blog.

The Great Salt...pan?

Hey everyone! Here's your last post before Bekah gets back and can tell you all about her Namibian adventures. Yay!!
As for me, I'm finished with all my finals and my first year of vet school! You'll hear more from me later in the summer when I travel to Hawaii to work on an animal sanctuary. If you want to check it out before I get there, you can visit the website at www.threeringranch.org.
So what I have for you is what I promised last time, about where the animals you usually think about in Africa live in Namibia. When I heard from Bekah, they were planning on going to see them in Etosha National Park. Etosha means "the Great White Place" and was named because of the salt pan that makes up 25% of the park. It used to be the site of a lake, but over time the river that fed the lake changed course and the lake dried up, leaving a large salt deposit. All around the salt pan are springs where the animals come to drink, which makes it a great place to see wildlife like elephants, giraffes, rhinos, and lions. The Etosha salt pan can even be seen from space! Check it out on NASA's visible earth page at http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1194. And stay posted for stories from the field!

Desert Horses

Some other unique animals that live in Namibia are the feral horses of the Namib desert. Wait - horses? When you picture Africa, things like lions, giraffes, and elephants come to mind. Namibia has those animals too, and I promise to tell you about some of the places they live next time. But Namibia also has a unique population of feral horses around the town of Klein-Aus Vista (since Namibia used to be under German control, a lot of the towns have German names).
You might be wondering why I'm calling them feral horses instead of wild horses. Horses were not indigenous to southern Africa, so the horses had to be brought there from somewhere else; in this case, from Europe. Even though these horses have been living in isolation in the wild for over 90 years, they are from a domesticated population, and can't be called true "wild" animals. The term we use instead is feral. It's the same for the mustangs that live in the western United States.
There is some controversy over where the horses came from, but the most likely explanation is that they were left from German colonial forces when they were retreating from South African troops. The horses were then indirectly protected because they were located in an area that was restricted because of the diamond mining that happened there. The Namib desert horses are unique because there aren't too many feral horse populations that can survive in a desert environment.
I'm off to work today; when I'm not in class I work at a vet hospital not far from Davis. Today we're supposed to be going out to do acupuncture on a couple horses. Acupuncture is a treatment from Chinese medicine that involves placing very thin needles in specific points all over the body. Acupuncture is also performed in people. The animals look funny when they have all their needles in (sort of like a pincushion), but they don't seem to mind the treatments. A lot of animals actually go to sleep!

March of the (African) penguins?

Penguins in Africa? Are you sure?
Yup, believe it. Penguins aren't just found in Antarctica. In fact, there are penguins in other warmer climates too, like South America. But the African, or black-footed penguin, is the only penguin found on the continent of Africa, and even then, only on the coast of Namibia and South Africa.
The African penguin stands about 50 cm tall and weighs between 2-4 kg. It eats fish and other creatures that live in the ocean. They are listed as a "vulnerable" species because of population decline due to factors like habitat loss and damage from oil spills. In 2003, there were only 179,000 of them in the wild. That sounds like a lot, but as recently as 100 years ago, there were 1.5 million penguins on only one island!
The African penguin makes a very unique sound that is similar to a donkey! It also has several adaptations to living in a warmer climate, like being mostly active at dawn and dusk when the temperature is cooler. The penguins also have pink sweat glands above their eyes. The warmer the penguin gets, the greater the blood flow to the gland, and the darker pink it becomes. It helps cool the penguin by heat exchange with the outside environment.
I found this picture at http://www.penguins.cl/african-penguins.htm.
We haven't talked about penguins much in school yet, but today in immunology we were learning about transplantation. It was surprising to some people to learn that it is becoming more common to perform organ transplants in animals, just like in people! One of the more common transplants in animals is a kidney transplant, which is performed mainly in cats. Kidney failure is a fairly common disease, and some animals can get acute kidney failure from eating antifreeze that leaks from cars. The program at our hospital is neat because the kidney "donor" is on of the hospital's colony cats, and when they find one that is a match for a cat needing a kidney transplant, the owner of the cat must agree to adopt the donor cat and give it a lifelong home. It's a pretty good deal for both the donor and the recipient! Kidney transplants are also being performed in dogs, but the success rate is lower because of complications. In cats, the success rate is 70-80%, and in dogs about 40%. Pretty amazing!

Feed me, Seymour...

Ready for your next Namibian fact? Today, it's about a unique plant that lives in the Namib desert. Its name is Welwitschia mirabilis - that's quite a mouthful! In Namibia, though, its more common name is n'tumbo, which means "onion of the desert." What makes this plant so unique? Well, for one thing, it manages to live in the desert, surviving mainly on the water that comes from that fog I was telling you about earlier. It also only ever grows 2 leaves, which get twisted and frayed as the plant gets older. And boy, does it get older! These plants can live for 500-1000 years, and there are some that might even be as old as 2,000 years.
I found this picture of it on the web, http://www.namibweb.com/welwitschia.htm.
Sorry for the short post, but I've got to get back to work. Lots of things to do to get ready for finals. Last night some of my classmates and I got together to play "Parasitology Cranium." Do you know Cranium, the board game? You work in teams to try to guess clues by acting them out, drawing them, sculpting with clay, or answering questions. We made our own version where all the clues were parasites. It was a good way to study and have some fun at the same time - and definitely laugh a lot with everyone trying to act or sculpt the different worms, mites, and protozoa. :)

Rocks from the sky!

Another thing Namibia is famous for is the Hoba meteorite, which is the largest meteorite on Earth. You probably know that a meteorite is a rock that comes from space, but do you know the difference between a meteoroid and a meteorite? They're actually different names for the same object! When the rock is in space, it's called a meteoroid, and when it lands on Earth (or another object in space, like Mars) it's called a meteorite. You may also know the more common name of shooting star. A shooting star isn't actually a star at all, but a meteor coming through the Earth's atmosphere and burning up, which causes the light that you can see.
The Hoba meteorite is located in the Namibian town of Grootfontein, and has been in the place that it landed for at least 80,000 years. The actual meteorite is much older, though - between 400 and 800 million years old. It weighs about 60 tons!

In vet school, we're getting ready for our final exam in renal physiology. That's the study of how kidneys work. Your kidneys are really important because one of their main jobs is to filter your blood and remove toxic waste products, but they also have lots of other jobs. Right now, we're learning how they play a role in maintaining the pH, or acid/base level, of the body. They actually work closely with your respiratory system (or breathing) to make sure that the amount of acid and base in your bloodstream stay constant so you don't get sick. It's neat how two seemingly unrelated systems cooperate so closely to keep you healthy!