Elizabeth the Scientist

My introduction to the lab and my new temporary life as a sceintist, began in Sarasota, Florida at Mote Laboratory, with their amazing staff of scientists. Alex & I had to become masters of HPLC (high pressure liquid chromotography) an instrument that we will be using down in Antarctica.

 

Elizabeth being a scientist

 

We were in Florida for a week, which was the most consistent living situation we’d had in a few months. We settled into our hotel on the beach, walked to work everyday, enjoyed dinner out every night and tried every key lime pie we could get our hands on in the town. It was a nice “working” holiday to end our real holiday before returning to Rutgers in New Jersey and begin final preparations for Antarctica. 

 

view of Sarasota on our walk to work

enormous Florida “garden spider”

 

By far, my favorite part of the trip was visiting Hugh & Buffett, the manatees at Mote Aquarium, which is connected to Mote Laboratory. I insisted we visited them twice, as the first time we had missed “feeding time”, where Hugh & Buffett consume up to 100 heads of lettuce and kale per day.

 

 

We loved Hugh & Buffett so much that video footage was taken of them munching on their lettuce. This inspired me to create my first movie ever.