Tennessee Journey

Over the past couple of weeks I've been in Tennessee working at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory and attending a class on High Performance Computing for Phylogenetics at the University of Tennessee.  My family came along, and since we were staying in Knoxville, which is only an hour from the Great Smoky Mountains, we spent one Saturday visiting the G.S.M. National Park.  We happened to be there right in the peak of fall color season and had a great time looking at the foliage and exploring the amazing diversity of lichens in and around the park!

 

An official park stamp with Cladonia apodocarpa.

 

Traveling companions.

Checking out the lichen diversity!

-Brendan

NC Science Festival

A little over a week ago, I participated in a Science Expo that was one of the culminating events of the North Carolina Science Festival.  It was great fun to bring my traveling lichen show, complete with real lichens, microscopes, and plenty of amazing lichen photos.  I was also sure to engage passersby and answer any questions that they might have about lichen biology and the science of lichenology.  While my table was one of the only 'natural history' type displays, there were all sorts of science demos, hands-on activities, lab tours and talks.  It was a great time!

- Brendan