Until We Meet Again (Closeout Stats)

My maternal grandfather refused to say goodbye.

Instead, his words of farewell were "Until we meet again."

Sunset on the Waimakariri near Arthur's Pass National Park. The river forms
a classic winding braid over its gravel bed, an important habitat for many
native New Zealand species, including insects and some nesting birds.

Those are the words I always repeat to myself as I pack up shop at Landcare Research and leave New Zealand once again. Just as every trip introduces me to new wonders that make me love this spectacular country more, every departure makes me long for the next return more than the last.

Eyes glued to the dissecting scope in my classic work pose.
Photographed by I.A. Dickie.

Following tradition, here's a numerical summary of this trip to New Zealand:

Root tips counted: 138,755

DNA samples taken: 3,435

Chocolate consumed in this endeavor: At least 4kg

(Did you really think I was bringing some of my chocolate home to share?)

A visitor in the lab!

Kilometers driven in rental car: 1217

Wipers-instead-of-turn-signal errors: 2

American (counter-clockwise u-turns): 1

"Correct" U-turns: 3 (I'm getting better!)

Bottles of NZ white sampled: 4 (plus a Californian pinot by Cline Cellars enjoyed with J)

Servings of fish and chips: 3 (Yeah, I'm enjoying my social omnivory... :)

Time until return to NZ: hopefully a matter of months...

Closeout Stats

We may not be able to trust Mayan numerology again (or at least not our doomsday interpretations of it), but you can sure trust these numbers!


Number of earthquakes felt in J's presence: 1
J's guess at said quake's magnitude: 3.6
Actual measure of quake's magnitude: 3.5

Total chocolate consumption by Holly: 7.86 kilograms
Rate of chocolate consumption: 1.43 kg / week
(...and accelerating. Sometimes I impress even myself.)

Root tips counted: >200,000
Bird bone photos taken: 201
Papers in press at Ecological Applications: 2 (woo hoo!)

Number of pages filled with meaningless algebra: 8
Number of models for tree-fungal interactions attempted: 4
Record lowest biomass of tree (in a badly broken model): -1 x 10^(76)
(Happily, my trees are behaving better now!)

Months until I return to Landcare: ~11
Grant money I must spend before then: ~$9,200
Thesis chapters that must be accepted before then: 2
Thesis chapters presently written up: 0.71394



Whether it's been driven by chocolate, good company, or successful science, this trip to New Zealand has been a spectacular one. And while I'm looking forward to getting back home to my practically-beachfront-apartment, I'm also so excited to come back next year and let you know how the wee seedlings fared!

Thanks for coming along on the ride!

Miscellaneous Harvest Stats

A longer post updating you on the current status of the soil survey will be forthcoming, but here, a few amusing (and perhaps terrifying) numbers to sketch the picture. All values are accurate to three decimal places. Totally. We're doing super-precise science here!


Number of able-bodied assistants: 2
Hourly wage of able-bodied assistants: Higher than NSF pays graduate fellows
Enthusiasm of able-bodied assistants: Off the charts
Volume of music played in the lab by able-bodied assistants: Dunno, but it's *loud*

Max number of soil cores processed in one day: 39
Soil cores processed to date: 163
Soil cores remaining: 91
DNA samples taken: 1632
Anticipated end date: Wednesday -- two weeks ahead of schedule!

Hours per day Holly spends at the microscope: 8
Car Talk podcasts listened to at the microscope: 7
Number of times Kid Cudi's "Up, Up and Away" has played on repeat on my iPod: 217
       (Yes, I can get a little obsessive.)
Number of Rutgers football games listened to on the radio: 1
Number of Rutgers wins listened to on the radio: 0
Percentage of workday calories comprised of chocolate: 97%
       (Also I think I ate three plums and a banana.)


I was starting to have dreams about meat again, but luckily J. arrested my rapid degeneration into protein deficiency by suggesting Indian takeaway on Thursday night.

In other adventures, I have learned that the proportion of drivers who like to honk at running girls is substantially higher in Chch than in SF. (Today's mile times averaged 7:45 so I'm heading in the right direction!) And that, according to J., I drive a standard transmission "better than expected," but "can only improve from here."

Have I mentioned that J. is a pretty laid-back and super-accomodating guy?

Two-Month Summary

Obviously I've been rather lax in posting these summary statistics, but with two months down and two weeks to go, here are some entertaining figures drawn mostly from J. and my trip to Nelson Lakes in search of more field sites.

Distance driven on the "wrong side" of the road in the last three days: 1200 km (~750 miles)
Number of American-style (i.e. counter-clockwise) "open space U-turns" (i.e., in parking lots or grassy areas): 2
Number of Kiwi (i.e. clockwise) U-turns: 3
Number of mp3 files that will fit on a standard CD: 140
Do two such mp3-packed CDs fill a 1200 km journey: No

Lake temperature in St. Arnaud: 45 F
Number of eels seen post-swim: 8
Length of largest eel observed: 4 ft
Number of one-legged ducks spotted: 2 (out of 30+)
Number of stories about ducklings being eaten by eels heard: 1

Ocean temperature in Kaikoura: 60 F
Number of frightening creatures seen in ocean: 0
Moral of this story: Salty >>> Fresh

Number of insect bites currently being ignored: 13 (plus the 3 I won't feel until I wake up scratching them)
Number of field sites obtained and sampled: 2
Number of field sites expected: 5

Desire to do future work in insect-free, ocean-full Antarctic: 50,000,000
Relative scale of this desire: Unknown

Week 5.5 Summary

Halfway done!  And halfway done my fieldwork, too!  Looks like I'm staying on schedule for now.

Chocolate consumption to date: 6.1 kilograms (as in, I bought lots on sale, and ate it all, too.)
Cups of coffee to date: 2
Cups of tea to date: 4
Weight gain: We'll see when I get on the scale back home...  I'm concerned.

Amount of time it takes me to write a good column: 12 hours
Amount of time I spend writing a column these days: 5 hours
Amount of trouble I've given my poor editor: Uncountable
Number of reasonable column ideas remaining: -2

Number of seedlings processed: 150
Number of seedlings remaining: I'm afraid to count

Week 3.5 Summary

Days spent procrastinating trying to think of clever stats for this summary: 4
Clever stats thought up for this summary during that time: 0

Chocolate consumed: 2 kilos (though some of that shared with field crew)
Fruit consumed: 30 pieces (hooray for a second stonefruit season!)

Number of new bird species sighted: (at least) 9
Number of mammal species sighted: 4 (including humans and working dogs; not including roadkill)

Days out in the field: 2
Samples taken while in field: 142
Samples processed back in lab: 11
Week's scientific conclusion: "Uh oh."

Week 2 Summary

Time it takes to bike to work: 30 minutes with a tailwind, 55 minutes with a headwind
Number of falls off of bike: 1.5
Number of bruises resulting from falls off bike: 5

Kilos of chocolate consumed: 1.4 (uh oh)
Cups of tea consumed: 0
Caffeine in consumed chocolate in cups-of-tea-equivalent: 25

Strongest earthquake: 4.6, with ~10-second duration
Response to strongest earthquake: "Hmm... I wonder if this will get stronger.  Should I get out of bed?"


Hours spent coding a statistical model in R: 5
Hours it would have taken in MatLab: 1.5
Motivation to keep using R (scale of 1-10): -1e12

Week 1 Summary

Time it takes to bike to work: 50 minutes
Kilos of chocolate purchased: 2.4 (sale this week!)
Kilos of chocolate consumed: 0.3 (I've been good, I guess!)
Number of earthquakes Holly felt: 4*
Number of earthquakes everyone else felt: 36
Length of first run in the rain in what feels like ten years: 15 minutes
Cups of tea consumed: 3 (all on first day of work)

*I thought I felt 7 yesterday but there were only 3... Overcompensating?