On Thursday, 6th January 2005, the lovely, intelligent and thoroughly attractive group of Darwinians were privileged enought to be made privy to the wonders and excitement of the ANU's Research School of Biological Sciences. Currently, they are doing a lot of research into the workings and diseases of the eye, and as such we were treated to some very interesting lectures and activities.

Upon our arrival at the RSBS we were given a talk by one of the scientists before being split into two groups in order to do some practical work (otherwise known as "the fun stuff"). For our first practical we were instructed as to how to stain and set slides, and were then able to make up our own slides of rat retinas which we then looked at using a microscope which sent images to a computer (pretty techie, huh?). We then moved on to the next practical: dissecting a cow's eyeball. Highly intriguing, somewhat disturbing and only slightly gross, we had a lot of fun doing this (squishy fun, but fun all the same), and it was the perfect way to top off a day of fun and excitement at the RSBS.

Portia Predny