…and so we decided to play hooky and go to the beach for the day. Of course, we needed an excuse, which in this case was pretty easy: Tari Tan and Alex Wiltschko have joined the lab as new graduate students! Tari is currently imaging the olfactory bulb and doing optogenetics in the cortex, while Alex will focus on developing new experimental paradigms for studying odor-driven behavior.

Alex and Tari, the newest students in the Datta lab. Will they stay this happy?

We decamped to Crane’s Beach on the North Shore, stopping first at Woodman’s for some seriously delish fried clams and lobster rolls. A really great time was had by all: the weather certainly cooperated – the water temperature was 60 degrees F, the ambient temperature was 104 degrees F – and to prevent melting we spent the entire time in the ocean. We will give away our million-dollar idea right here: someone has GOT to invent a way to play water bocce.

All of us, pre-heatstroke. This is the only shot of the bunch where somebody wasn’t photobombing us from behind.