Our Sea Urchin Work on TV

Our own Aki Laruson and Caitlyn Genovese from the Moran lab were interviewed yesterday by Jay Fidell in a "Research at UH Manoa" segment on "ThinkTech Hawai'i".  Here is the YouTube link

and the descriptive blurb:

Research at UH Manoa
Understanding Urchins
Research at UH Manoa, with graduate students Aki Laruson and Caitlyn Genovese

Sea urchins, called wana in Hawaiian, are common on the rocks and reefs surrounding our islands. UH Manoa graduate student Aki Laruson is working to identify patterns of genomic divergence in so-called "collector" urchins, Tripneustes sp. These are the urchins that have been put to task to help control invasive seaweed growing in Kaneohe Bay. Caitlyn Genovese is studying growth energetics in marine invertebrate larvae including the local urchin population. Together they are using a variety of techniques ranging from phylogenetics to ecology to population genetics to bring new light to the evolutionary relationships of this pantropical species.
When
Mon Nov 10, 2014 1pm – 2pm Hawaii Time

To be honest, I was troubled by the hosts references to homeless children, "urchins," at the beginning of the interview, but Aki and Caitlyn both did a great job!

Some more info about urchin etymology from Google:

urchin

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