Little occurrences and everyday happenings are what make life enjoyable. The common sights and sounds that are often disregarded as routine, or mundane, take on a different meaning when observed from a closer perspective. During my time over here in Germany, I have spent many moments watching, listening, and thinking. Different sights, sounds, and interactions have caught my attention and have drawn a smile across my face-- finding a bundle of lavender on the sidewalk, smelling that bundle of lavender, hearing a small child speak German, a conversation with a friendly co-worker, food and drink with some friends by a lake-- these are all unexceptional in written form, but they create something extremely special and memorable in life. We have always been told to take pleasure in the small things in life, and I think I have always been one to follow this mantra. Now, however, I am experiencing this philosophy in a new country and environment, and I value those little bits of life that may seem so ordinary to the eyes, ears, and nose of another.

Following that little rant, here is an update on some happenings in the work/ research world...

Much of my work has consisted of evaluating the various effects that fungi have on crops-- more specifically, the effects of Rhizoctonia and Fusarium on wheat and corn, and the efficacy of various treatments against those pesky fungi. The evaluation for such a task involves washing the roots of the corn plants and then placing them in a numerical order, indicating the severity of the damage done by the fungus. The washing of the roots has become a rather therapeutic task for me. The job requires a sort of gentleness to handle the fragile roots-- we must not forget that plants are living things as well. Because the job requires little thinking, I find my brain wandering to other thoughts, and I rather enjoy this time to delve into those curiosities, memories, and other such musings.

On Friday I sowed the seeds of my own project (literally, ha!). The study will determine the effects of Sclerotinia on sunflowers. This means infecting beautiful sunflowers with a not-so-beautiful fungus. This creates conflicted feelings-- it is important to research how the fungus attacks the plant, but it also tears my heart a little bit to infect a lovely, living thing, which otherwise could live a healthy, and happy life. These feelings crop up (that pun was unintentional... almost) quite a bit in my work at BASF. Science has its ups and downs. Research is invaluable, but that doesn't make the subjects dispensable, whether these subjects include plants, mice, rats, monkeys, or any other living thing that is used for scientific purposes. As a result, science becomes a tricky profession, and one that often has you guessing your daily tasks. But if the research is done correctly, and humanely, then the end result is often worth the costs-- helping people in various ways and in various degrees, from a new treatment to better the outcome of crop production, to a profound medical breakthrough. Science is all around us, and is an extremely important part of our world, and frankly I can't imagine myself in another profession. The work environment and research subject will most likely change in the future, but the overall topic will remain the same.


Going in a different direction...

Last weekend I attended Brezelfest (pretzel festival) in Speyer (about 20 minutes West of my home city of Mannheim). It was very much a quintessential German event-- pretzels, bratwurst, beer, what else could you ask for? There really isn't too much else to say about it, but I will provide you with some pictures: