You guys, this summer has been giant! I successfully defended my dissertation, “Development and Evolution of Scyphomedusae” in May. Truly, it was an incredible day. And check out the amazing poster my lab made!
After my defense I had a few days to sleep before whipping right around to design and teach a two week long summer course on marine inverts. Check out the class blog we put together here: https://marinebioinverts.wordpress.com/
After that it was time to pack and move all the jellies an hour east, to the lovely Woods Hole, MA. It’s been almost one month since we arrived, where I’m now working as a postdoctoral researcher. The jelly polyps have all settled into their new homes, and are so happy they even made some jelly babies.
Over the next few months I’ll be ramping back up to regular posts, and I’d love to hear from y’all. If there is anything in particular you’d like to learn about (ecology, development, husbandry–you name it!) send me an email or post a comment below. It’s good to be back y’all. It’s good to be back 🙂
(new ephyrae jamming in their WHOI home)
The Helm Lab Blog 
Congratulations, Congratulations, Congratulations, Dr. Helm!! 🙂
Gelatinous Zooplankton around the world salute you!
Why thank you 😀
And to think I knew her when. . . .
Aw! 🙂
Why are you raising Jellyfish Polyps?
Because they are part of the jelly life cycle.
I love this site. It’s so refreshing. I would like to know how you cultured the jellies. Did you order them, capture and bred, and where did you find the literature for this?
Congrats on the phd! Keep up the good work!
Hi Joseph–
Thanks. Culturing takes a lot of practice and experimenting, but the resources for this are getting better and better every day. First you can order jellies, though I’ve collected mine from all over (some from fellow researchers, some from orders, some from aquariums, some from breeding, etc). I would check out pbnjellies.com for ordering. For literature, I recommend “How To Keep Jellyfish In Aquariums” (find it here).
Hope that helps!