ABSTRACT
As university research goes, Paula spends more and more time writing research proposals and quarterly reports, giving presentations, writing peer-reviewed publications, and schmoozing with local growers and commodity groups. In order to balance all these tasks, Paula and Jessica develop a new system. Paula writes the protocols, does the data analyses, and writes, while Jessica completes the bioassays, manages the field crew, does the field assessments, orders supplies, and keeps everything organized. Or, as Jessica puts it, she does all the work and Paula thinks a lot. Once the laboratory colony has been well established (after two rough starts, once with no eggs hatching and then with no pupae emerging) Jessica does repetitive bioassays with three chemicals representative of different chemical classes and a standard preparation of the microbial toxicant Bacillus thuringiensis subsp. kurstaki. Paula wants to monitor the quality of the insect colony with these tests.
