Volunteer for Science

High school student Alec Cobban works inside a sterile environment in WHOI scientist Virginia Edgcomb‘s lab, setting up a method to amplify and examine genes involved in nitrogen metabolism. This work is part of a project of the WHOI Coastal Ocean Institute to investigate how oyster aquaculture may impact nitrogen-removal processes in coastal sediments polluted by rising levels of nitrogen. Cobban, a student at Falmouth Academy in Falmouth, Mass., has volunteered in Edgcomb’s lab for three years, mentored primarily by noted microbiologist and WHOI guest investigator Edward Leadbetter. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)