...aaaand, we're back!

Blogging again. That must mean something interesting is happening!

In less than 72 hours, I will be off to study snails at the bottom of the South Pacific Ocean. That's right, your taxpayer dollars are buying me a plane ticket to a tropical paradise, where I will spend two months on a boat with the express purpose of learning more about something that's so remote from your daily existence that you need a multimillion-dollar vehicle just to see it. 

Actually, it's not really that bad. The very remoteness of these critters is what makes them so interesting – they're some of the only living things that grow without energy from the sun, and they do it so efficiently that they suck up CO2 faster than any other known organism. Plus I'll be spending half the time in a refrigerated shipping container, so you can forget about beach towels and piña coladas... 

Updates here may be periodic depending on satellite reception, but check back now and then to see what happens. More news soon!