Lab Fun | Page 2 | Guse Lab

School comes to COS

2017-07-23 By Annika Guse

Earlier this month, a group of children from the Marie Curie German/French pre-school visited COS. The visit was organised by Alexis Maizel and in total 5 labs from COS including us participated. Every lab gave a short general presentation, and then groups of 6-7 childrens rotated through 5 different stations to learn about DNA extraction, chromatography, plants and flies and anemones. Thanks to the help from Marie, Diana, Gideon and Victor the children had a fun time (at least that´s what it looked liked when I had a peek). Thanks so much for investing your time into educating the next generation.

Japanese food: oishi!

2017-06-19 By Annika Guse

There is no need to say that Japanese food is absolutely delicious. We love the Soba noodle soups are at lunch during field work days, all kinds of tempuras, tofu dishes such as Agadashi tofu and the super fresh seafood. There are also many tasty fruits and veggies. The local citrus Shinquesar as juice and ice cream and the Goya bitter melon are our absolute favourite. The Okinawan islands have also many local specialties such as sahimi of many kinds of local fish, peanut tofu as well as (for people with good nerves) goat sashimi and pork knuckles. And let´s not forget the local Aguu pork which is served for example as a fantastic ginger pork set meal including sahimi, soup and seaweed. Oishi!

Ginger pork set meal

Goat Sashimi

Local fish

Seafood Sashimi

Field Work in Okinawa 2017

2017-06-19 By Annika Guse

This year, Liz, Diana, Philipp and Annika joined again our Japanese collaborators from the Hatta lab (Tokyo), Ueno lab (Okazaki) and Maruyama lab (Sendai) at Sesoko Marine Station on Okinawa to collect coral larvae for comparative experiments in the field. Coral were collected on the 1st of June around Sesoko island and transferred to the water tables. Over the next few days, night snorkelling to watch out for spawning on the reef right in front of the station started. As predicted by the team leader Masayuki Hatta, Acropora corals spawned during the night of the 6th of June and after a busy night of gamete collection and mixing sperm and eggs for fertilization, coral embryos developed into planula larvae which were used for experiments. 4 days after fertilization, coral larvae are ready to be ship and, after a fun night out with delicious Japanese food and beer at our favorite Izakaya in Nago City, our Japanese colleagues went back home to continue their experiments at their home institutes. The Guse lab continued to enjoy the snorkelling and working at Sesoko for another week trying to learn as much as possible about the natural coral reef habitats and rearing coral larvae and metamorphosed polyps. We also brought some coral babies home and hope to keep them happy and alive in Heidelberg. Anyways, we all hope to be back in 2018 to witness that amazing event of synchronous coral spawning induced by the lunar cycle that occurs only once every year.

The reef at Sesoko Marine Station

One of our main activities: snorkeling

Collected corals in water table

Coral are setting to get ready for releasing their gametes

Monitoring the spawning & collecting gamtes

Lab work during spawning night

Izakaya night to celebrate a successful coral spawning 2017

Break free at the COS-Party 2016

2016-12-20 By Annika Guse

This years COS-Party centered around Spartakus, a roman slave and gladiator (111-71 BC) who got famous for organizing a major slave uprising against the Roman Republic.

Thanks to a group of highly creative COS PhD students and Postdocs, this party turned out to become much more than an ordinary Toga party: the venue was transformed into an area with ancient pillars, archs and vormitorium. The orchestrated use of music (thanks to COS PI Alexis Maizel alias DJ Engrailed), beamer, lasers and fog machines recreated the feel of being a member of the lowest class of society in the midst of the harsh reality in the ancient Rome. The extraordinary costumes did the rest. As last year, the best costume award will most likely go again to the Lemke lab. I think ballot-rigging is the only way to stop them. Worth mentioning is also the costume of the Centanin lab who showed up as a Caesar Salad. However, even without being anywhere close to be best-in-show the Guse Lab members made a very strong appearance on the dance floor as the cutest mermaids ever seen as COS surrounding Neptune, their fearless leader. Pics are to come soon – just wait and see for yourself.

Iliona´s Paper is published

2016-09-08 By Annika Guse

Here comes our most recent publication with the title: “Aiptasia sp. larvae as a model to reveal mechanisms of symbiont selection in cnidarians” Well done, people!

Some bad scans of the nice Polaroids we took at the paper celebration party:

COS-MIC: YOU ARE A STAR!

2015-12-05 By Annika Guse

The COS-Party 2015 was a big success!

Despite our best efforts to win the “Best Costume Award” with our sophisticated “Star Activity” costume, we had to admit defeat by the extraordinary costume of the Lemke lab: “Star Evolution”. The win was well deserved!

Summer BBQ with the Holstein lab

2015-07-26 By Annika Guse

To celebrate the Heideberg summer, Thomas Holstein invited his lab and us for a BBQ in his beautiful garden in the Heidelberg Altstadt. The unique setting was accompanied by amazing wines from the Pfalz and Banyuls as well as with tasty food including a fantastic selection of Italian antipasti, German meats and French cheese. And let´s not forget about the deserts!

Thinking Hands Workshop – new ways to visualize our science

2014-10-27 By Annika Guse

On September the 26th, the workshop “Thinking Hands” was held in the Guse Lab. It was lead by Stephanie Guse, an artist living in Vienna, and Katrin Funcke , a freelance illustrator living in Berlin. This one-day workshop focused on teaching us visual means such as graphics, illustrations and collages to visualize scientific content with an emphasize on collaboration by working together on the same piece and by adding into each others drawings. We also tried to make our particular research interests understandable to non-scientists by breaking down our scientific questions into their most basic aspects. After one day of hard work and lots of fun, we produced a series of images that represent very well our science: Thinking Hands

For some impressions of the day, check out the pictures below:

The state of the lab in September 2014

2014-09-20 By Annika Guse

But who is who?

Hannelore, the Anemone!

2014-06-16 By Annika Guse

The Guse lab has a new member: Hannelore, the Anemone! Hannelore has recently arrived from the Pringle lab in Stanford and became friends with Karl-Heinz right away. When Hannelore is not discussing science and politics with Karl-Heinz, she enjoys sitting on the lab computer watching people passing by the lab. (P.S.: Hannelore was hand-made by Kristen in the Pringle Lab and is the sweetest thing we have ever seen. Dankeschön, Kristen!)