Wow – it’s been over a fortnight since last I blogged here. You must all be wondering: What on earth is going on? Well, the simple answer is that Ian has been away on a kind of ‘speaking tour’ while Elliot’s been back in the lab trying to kill sea stars (with success), and Kalia’s been trying to kill amphipods (with great success).

First, to the speaking tour. Ian traveled on Oct 15th to Muskegon, MI, where he spoke at the Annis Water Research Institute on the ecology of ssDNA viruses. This included an update on current SSWD work, our current work with Amphipod circoviruses, and also some historical perspective on the whole research field. This was followed immediately by The Wildlife Society conference in Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada), where Ian spoke about SSWD in a special session addressing wildlife disease. Not only was Ian’s talk the only focused on any invertebrate…