The Science of Gossip | The Experience of Understanding | Research: Not just for grad students
by Megan Z. Shearin ’06
Why Does Undergraduate Research Matter?
“Research is central to understanding what science is about. The idea of undergraduate research involves asking questions and finding answers – and that’s what we do at a liberal arts college. We’re teaching students how to question, analyze and make connections – and making them life-long learners.”
Dr. Chris Haley
Natural Sciences & Mathematics Division Chair
DID YOU KNOW? Harvestmen are mostly active at night and live in dark, damp areas. Harvestmen are often confused with spiders, but they are not true spiders. Spiders have venomous fangs, whereas the fangs of harvestmen have no venom glands. An average person may view any spider-like creature as a reason to scream and run to get a shoe, but for these students there’s an entire world to be discovered in the tiny legs and bodies of these arachnids known as harvestmen.
It takes Danielle Dardis ’08 and Nouman Rana ’09 roughly 30 minutes to dissect one harvestman by using a stereomicroscope and a scalpel.
That’s not a significant amount of time to most people, but take that one dissection and multiply it by 600, and then you have a year-long project that Dardis and Rana have been working on, in addition to their academic studies.
Dardis, from Suffolk, Va., and Rana, from Virginia Beach, Va., are carefully dissecting and identifying harvestmen, which measure 2-4 millimeters in size (that’s about the size of a coarse particle of sand), through intense examination. Dardis is focusing on specimens collected from Costa Rica, and Rana is focusing on specimens collected from Trinidad, where the initial research began in July 2005 with a group of four Virginia Wesleyan students and faculty member Dr. Victor Townsend, associate professor of biology. Rana is attempting to identify four new species found in Trinidad that have not been previously collected on the island.
Identifying New Species
Harvestmen, commonly referred to as “daddy long-legs,” are not really spiders. They are the third largest group of Arachnids that belong to the order Opiliones. They are not poisonous and cannot bite, and there are more than 6,000 species worldwide.
In order to identify new species, the duo must collect scientific literature, create character charts documenting characteristics such as body size, color pattern and distribution of spines on the legs and dissect reproductive organs when needed. The last is an important step, said Rana, “because it’s hard to tell male and female harvestmen apart, and most of the time the females are bigger in size,” he added.
The project is demanding, yet rewarding, said Rana. “It’s really rewarding that all the time I’ve spent on research is going to a greater scientific cause,” he said.
Process of Discovery
Dardis is no stranger to harvestmen. In the summer of 2006, she spent 11 days conducting harvestmen field research and collecting specimens in Trinidad. A fulltime student and president of Beta Beta Beta, the national biological honor society, and the Pre-Professional Club, she acknowledged that before she began her research, she knew very little about harvestmen.
“That’s what’s so interesting about this process,” said Dardis. “It’s been an interesting process because I have had to learn along the way.”
Townsend, the faculty adviser who oversees both students’ projects, said undergraduate research is the fundamental layer of what science is all about.
“Undergraduate research exposes students to the process of discovery,” said Townsend. “Students learn how science is done, the process and the research. And they learn how to publish their work and share the information with the scientific community.”
Once complete, Dardis’ project titled “Identification, Description, and Comparison of the Harvestmen Fauna of Northern Trinidad, La Selva, Costa Rica and El Cope, Panama,” will be used by scientists all over the world. She is creating a key character chart of each species to help other scientists at the biology field station in Costa Rica.
The Value of Research
Both Dardis and Rana agree that their research is time consuming but well worth the cause. “Without research you wouldn’t be able to build on scientific knowledge,” said Dardis.
From his experience, Rana said he has learned three valuable things that he will carry with him after he graduates from Virginia Wesleyan.
“I’ve learned how to study well, how to prepare for research projects and how to prepare for science research in general, which will prepare me for medical school,” he said.He aspires to be a neurosurgeon and job shadows a doctor in his free time.