Darcy B. Kelley's Xenopus Lab from Ahjin Kim on Vimeo.
On April 5th, 2012, the students
in Eben Kirksey’s graduate course “The Anthropology of Science” visited the lab
of Darcy Kelly at Columbia University.
After wandering around the maze
of the Columbia campus, riding up two elevators in two buildings, we located
the lab. Our small class filled a seminar room where we held our discussion.
Dr. Kelley quickly opened up and talked freely about Xenopus frogs and her
research. “It seemed immediately clear that Darcy Kelley had a sincere affinity
for this species,” wrote Charlie Nichols, one student in the class. “Indeed, as she spoke to our class she held a
toy, a rubber frog, in front of her on the desk. She talked about the politics
of procuring frogs for her research, the qualities that make Xenopus an ideal
candidate for her academic inquiries, and defended Xenopus against allegations
that it has threatened the livelihoods of other amphibians.”
Fifty million year old fossils of
Xenopus have been found, according to Dr. Kelley. She speculated that this adaptable frog will
outlive the human species.
Dr. Kelley traces her personal connection to Xenopus frogs
back to her early interests in hormones and sexual differentiation. After
studying bird song at the beginning of her career, as a post-doctoral
researcher, she she began working with frogs because it is “easier to take the
whole system apart and figure out how it works.”
After speaking with us for around
40 minutes, Dr. Kelley showed us the frog room. She warned us before we went in
that “it’s not too thrilling. They all look alike.” The frogs were stored in
clear plastic tanks on metal shelves. In contrast to the sunny seminar room,
this room was windowless. With a
concrete floor it resembled a small storage closet. A mechanical hum—the whir
of machines, maybe an air conditioning unit—washed the room in sound. A sheet
of paper entitled: “Frog Care Procedures” was taped to the door with
instructions on how to care for a sick frog: “Isolate and place on bottom
shelf” followed by a phone number for reporting the sick frog. Also, the care
procedures instructed, in the case of death: “Separate tank, spray it with
bleach.”
There were around eleven species of frogs in the room as
well as a chimera that Dr. Kelley had made by fusing two embryos together. She
picked up a wriggling frog for us to examine, inviting us to touch his slime,
promising it felt like “velvet.” Despite her comment that the frogs all looked
alike, she spoke affectionately to and about the frogs, calling one “sweetie.” Cooing to the chimera frog, she remarked: “She’s
so big!” And concluded “these
guys are in very good shape.”
The full interview is available on SoundCloud
