Get out your measuring cups

and we'll play a new game...

As everyone knows (will know), the blood carries Red Blood Cells (RBC, or erythrocytes -from the grec erythro, red- or hematites -named from the heme containing an atome of iron III that gives its red color to the cell) and White Blood Cells (WBC, or leukocytes -from the grec leukos, that moves). The WBC are responsible for the immune response.

Once in Ny-Alesund, I'm supposed to be the expert for the analysis of barnacle geese (Branta leucopsis) and common eiders'(Somateria mollissima) WBC... Big responsibility on my frail shoulders...Shit, I'll have to do pull-ups...

Fig. 1.1: A lymphocyte and two heterophiles, surrounded by typical RBC. Note the lymphocyte's pseudopodias.

Fig. 1.2: Two thrombocytes, one heterophile and one monocyte. Typical forms.

However, because there is always an however, Cecilia S. (the Swedish PhD who is teaching to me) and I are stuck by strange cells that do not look like anything known, and that nobody have ever described... Vive la science, that gives us the title of world expert in B. leucopsis et S. mollissima's leukocytes to her, and the second position to me. But, except the little glory its gives us, nobody can help us...

Departure to Ny-Alesund, Spitzberg Island, Svalbard archipelago, Norway Sunday, June 17th, 05:00pm.

see you

yvan