{"id":26821,"date":"2018-10-30T09:17:05","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T13:17:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/college.unc.edu\/?p=26821"},"modified":"2024-07-02T16:57:14","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T16:57:14","slug":"chasing-cephalopod-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/?p=26821","title":{"rendered":"Chasing Cephalopod Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>Jared Richards recalls childhood memories walking through the halls of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and the awe of all that surrounded him. A summer research internship made it possible for the Carolina undergrad to return and contribute to the world-renowned institution.<\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"ast-oembed-container \" style=\"height: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Chasing Cephalopod Dreams\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/UxRrONaiyCk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ask people about their favorite animal and most will probably say a dog or a cat, maybe even something more exotic like a dolphin. Ask Jared Richards and he will tell you he loves the cuttlefish \u2013 an animal related to the octopus, with eight arms and two tentacles lined with suckers. These relatively small and quick creatures can change their color and pattern in a fraction of a second, and are thought to be among the most intelligent invertebrate species.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCephalopods have always been my favorite group of animals,\u201d he says. \u201cI remember when I first made the connection that they\u2019re in the same phylum as the common garden snail. It\u2019s kind of crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Richards, a UNC junior, spent the past summer working as a Natural History Research Experiences intern with the Smithsonian Institution. His research involved cataloguing over 400 cephalopods \u2013 like cuttlefish, squid and octopods \u2013 caught more than two miles below the sea surface during a 2009 research expedition at the Atlantic Ocean\u2019s Charlie-Gibbs Fracture Zone. He also employed computer science techniques to calculate the abundance of species in the region based on what researchers brought back.<\/p>\n<p>At the Smithsonian Institution Museum Support Center in Maryland, Richards pulls a cart through the mollusk room. The large storage area bursts with floor-to-ceiling shelves, lined with over 100,000 clear jars containing marine life. Richards loads up his cart with vessels of all sizes, from small bottles to five-gallon buckets.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_26824\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-26824\" style=\"width: 498px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-26824\" src=\"https:\/\/collegearchive.unc.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/21\/2024\/07\/UndergradResearchSmithsonian02-5-600x400-1.jpg\" alt=\"Jared Richards removes octopus from jar\" width=\"498\" height=\"332\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-26824\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Jared Richards removes an octopus from a jar for examination.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Back in the lab, he carefully places the containers on a table and gets to work. With a textbook open beside him, he examines each specimen to confirm it is correctly identified.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">Spending hours in a cloud of alcohol fumes, poking and prodding a squishy octopus may not be everyone\u2019s idea of a great time, but Richards loves it. He even got the chance to inspect what his mentor believes may be an undiscovered species.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cIt\u2019s something that I never expected in my life \u2013 that I\u2019d ever have the opportunity to see, besides in photos, what these deep-sea organisms look like,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s astounding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">His biggest unexpected opportunity though was acceptance into the Smithsonian Institutions\u2019 internship program. Growing up just an hour away, family trips to D.C. centered around visiting the museums, which helped cultivate his fascination with zoology.<\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" style=\"text-align: right\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">As Richards walked through the ocean hall of the National Museum of Natural History as a child, he never imagined years later he would be making that same walk on his way to work.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u201cTo grow up around the museum and to know that it\u2019s the United States\u2019 hub for zoology and natural history, and then have the ability to work there is just truly amazing,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"boilerplate\" style=\"text-align: right\">\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>Jared Richards is a UNC junior majoring in quantitative biology within the UNC College of Arts &amp; Sciences.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><em>The Natural History Research Experiences is a summer internship program with the Smithsonian Institution\u2019s National Museum of Natural History. Students work with mentors during the 10-week program to complete independent research projects in earth science, biology, and anthropology.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><em>Story by <a href=\"https:\/\/endeavors.unc.edu\/author\/meganann\/\">Megan May<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/endeavors.unc.edu\/chasing-cephalopod-dreams\/\">Endeavors<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<div class=\"boilerplate\" style=\"text-align: right\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jared Richards recalls childhood memories walking through the halls of the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and the awe of all that surrounded him. A summer research internship made it possible for the Carolina undergrad to return and contribute to the world-renowned institution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":26824,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center 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