I just returned from a month long trek to the east coast. It's always amazing to me how much I can miss the mainland, and how much I love the coastal Atlantic. Things of interest this time - did you know the horseshoe crab is the official marine mammal of Delaware?
I spent about 10 days of my trip at the University of Delaware's Air-Sea interaction lab in Lewes, DE, actually within Cape Henlopen State Park. I was only assisting, and not actually in charge of any experiments, but I still became pretty closely acquainted with the 40-ft air and wind tank (and the smaller version of the tank). Perhaps the coolest thing was seeing how many people out there actually study bubbles for a living. Here I was thinking I was one of the few looking at the interactions of bubbles and microalgae (which still might be true), but to talk with bubble physicists was awesome.
The other interesting thing was that to make the rain, they are using hypodermic needles, just like I did to control the bubble size in my microalgae experiments. I chose to use needles because my father was a pharmacist, not because I saw precedent. Apparently its quite common. They used 6000 needles to create their rain tanks!
By chance, I also got to visit Lamont, Columbia's Earth and Oceans lab located along the gorgeous Palisade Parkway on the border of NY and NJ. What a dream. I know its not by the ocean, but the smell of all those old trees, and its location right along side the Hudson river are enchanting. The lab was awesome, and had this really out there feel, while also housing some amazing research scientists. I still just can't believe the place exists.
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