Marine microbes eat
polysaccharides, except
that sometimes they don’t.

Andrew D. Steen

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

I measured the rates at which dissolved polysaccharides are degraded by microbes in seawater.  Differences in those rates among locations suggest that the reactivity of dissolved organic matter in seawater is determined by the nature of the microbial community as well as the chemical characteristics of organic matter.  If seawater microbial communities in the Arctic Ocean begin to access a wider range of dissolved organic molecules  as temperatures warm in the future, more organic matter may be converted to carbon dioxide in the Arctic Ocean.

F-actin bundles,
building blocks of cells’ structures,
I bend and buckle.

José Alvarado

AMOLF, Amsterdam

I work with actin, a protein that cells use for mechanical structures
just as an engineer would use steel to make a skyscraper or a car. In
my Master’s project, I took reconstituted filamentous actin bundles
and performed mechanical experiments on them using
myosin-functionalized beads in an optical tweezer setup in order to
investigate their material properties.

Terrorists bomb us
I ever seek reasons why
the good turn out worse

Chanel B.

University of Lincoln, UK

My dissertation is examining the causes of Islamist terrorism, which looks at conflicts within the Middle East, the demise of the Ottoman Empire and the subsequent rise in political Islam, and how the US, its foreign policy and actions in the Middle East have been a stated motivation in terrorist events (most notably by bin Laden).  I’m also examining the ‘war on terror’ and its repercussions.

Low scanning error
but the anatomy stinks.
Choose your site wisely.

Shauna Dudley-Javoroski

The University of Iowa

My dissertation evaluated the validity and reliability of several  measurement techniques (paired-pulse muscle stimulation, peripheral quantitative computed tomography, and sonographic imaging) for quantifying musculoskeletal adaptation after spinal cord injury.  The haiku refers to the difficulty I encountered during sonographic imaging of paralyzed muscle that had undergone fibrotic changes and adipose deposition…some regions are superior to others for measuring muscle thickness.

vertical motion
ice cloud particles growing
falling.  falling.  gone!

Jennifer E. Kay

University of Washington

Medieval markets
Sunder selves and create ties;
Gifts do it better.

Elizabeth Harper

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Dissertation title: Gifts and Economic Exchange in Late Medieval Religious Writing

Breeding pretty plants
Parent chromosome painting
Microscope eyes hurt

Ryan Contreras

The University of Georgia

I’m in ornamental plant breeding and genetics, primarily cytogenetics.  Some of my research involves Mendelian inheritance in diploids and polyploids and I also do some work in molecular cytogenetics.  Other sundry things like the effects of induced polyploidy on pigment composition and antioxidant enzyme activity.

Marlin roam oceans
Thunnus anus is tuna ass
This is my abstract

Anonymous

I’m investigating the movements of highly migratory fishes for my PhD.

improving figures
drawing, pasting, coloring
microsoft blows

Julia Maresca

Pennsylvania State University

collecting data:
a task Sisyphean, with
mass spec for boulder

Eli Rosen

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill