January is always a funny month. After the winter holidays, the semester begins and everything seems out of balance for a few weeks. I am teaching again, this time Animal Behavior, a course I love to teach. We teach in person with masks (my students are great at wearing them), so I only see the top half of their faces, but it all works out so far.

Research is very active, several papers are (re) submitted, more to come! Interestingly, a few older studies from our work on Cave mollies have now matured and are ready to come out.

New students are joining the lab, all is very dynamic.

Cave Molly (Poecilia mexicana) embryos. Photo credit: Rudy Riesch

And last week we had our annual snowstorm. Campus was closed for three days, driving was difficult, but nothing seriously bad happened. Yeah!

Field vehicle covered in ice (this was actually in 2010)

Luckily, winter does not last long here in Oklahoma and soon the sunflowers will dominate again.

Sunflower in Scissortail park in Oklahoma City 2021