Some kind of order

There is an inexplicable urge in biology to sort, classify and order. The whole fish business grew over the last few years and so did the number of DNA isolates, primers, fin clips, blood samples and a mountain of working solutions. The time has come to sort them. A database of fish primers was created, stock solutions are now neatly packed in 4 boxes. DNA isolates and fin clips will follow.

Sir Humphry Davy

I read something about Humphry Davy on the BBC News website today. His name appeared on Slovenian TV a few years ago, apparently he was in Podkoren and Ljubljana several times, fly fishing. He even wrote a book "Salmonia or Days of Fly Fishing" (full content), published in 1832. In it, variability of salmonids, over fishing, stocking non native fish and taxonomic problems are mentioned beside personal experience of fly fishing in Great Britain, Ireland, Illyria (more or less present day Slovenia) and in several locations in Austria. Salmon, brown trout, huchen, grayling and charr are discussed, no mention of marble, softmouth or dentex trout.

A new piece of equipment II

As mentioned, a younger and better looking model appeared to present the wonderful new ABI3130xl.

Bilateral cooperation

Saša of the University of Belgrade has joined us in the laboratory for 2 weeks. He is a regular participant at sampling field trips and is the author or coauthor of several papers, mostly on the subject of salmonids of Serbia. His visit was made possible by a bilateral agreement between Slovenia and Serbia promoting scientific cooperation. We got a 2 year grant for our fish project and now we have to spend the money. These two weeks were very busy, he analysed a ton of samples, but we did find some time to enjoy the winter sun.