Man, I Wish I Could Get A Job Like This

In a much more entertaining story in today's NYTimes than the one that provoked the screed below, we read of one Mark Sidall. Dr. Sidall studies leeches and the bacteria that reside in their throats and intestines.

Some excerpts:

By the time Dr. Siddall joined the museum in 1999, the evolution of leeches had become his chief obsession. . . . To collect leeches, Dr. Siddall and his colleagues take off their shoes, roll up their pants and wade into the water, even if its waist-high muck [is] full of electric fish. "You can't set traps for leeches," Dr. Siddall said. "We are always the bait . . ."

Leeches appear to have evolved their own partnerships [with bacteria] . . . It is particularly tough to study these bacteria, because scientists need to find leeches with big bacteria-housing organs to dissect. It turns out that some of the biggest are in a species that lives just on the rear end of the hippopotamus. . . .

As queasy as this all might make you, I think it's a fascinating article. And the close-ups of the leech in action on some human skin? Call the resident teen or tween in for a look. I'll bet you you get a "cool!"