Going to California next year

This past week we decided where we'll be headed in the coming year. I (Paul) defend my thesis in late May and then at the end of the summer we will be moving to California for a year or two. I have accepted a postdoc position at Stanford where I will be studying modern and ancient scallops to understand the contributions of life history and ecology to rates of extinction and speciation. Scallops are perhaps one of the most dynamic clams - as the videos below cribbed from youtube can attest - and they also have a spectacular fossil record. Because people like to eat them we also know quite a bit about their modern biology as well. The coming months are going to be incredibly busy for all of us but we're really looking forward to this next phase. If anyone has any suggestions for places to live in the bay area near Palo Alto, preschool/daycare options, and/or simply suggestions for places we should check out please let us know.

Scallops swimming! Pretty cool for a clam, eh?

Scallop looking at you! Well, not quite, but it is true that all of those little pin head like dots are sensory structures that allow the scallop to detect light and dark as well as movement.