I've been really busy here in Sao Paulo and wasn't even able to
go on any CP hunt during the week off I had from university in the 1st
week of September. I haven't had much time to log in for the past few
weeks and have been having a few problems on this side with computers.
Sorry if I haven't answered some of the messages sent to me, especially
yours Juerg. Unfortunately, through a stupid error, I accidentally erased
a bunch of things and am not even sure to whom I owe an answer. So first
of all, I'd like to ask anyone who sent me their CP lists in the past
month to please send it to me again, since these were erased.
Second I'd like to warn all Europeans that I'll be visiting
Europe at the end of the year and will be passing by a few herbaria to
see TYPE specimens of native Brazilian CPs. Loyd in the UK is organizing
a meeting in January '96 and has kindly asked me to give a talk on
Brazilian CPs, which will be a great opportunity for me to meet as many
of you as possible. He'll soon be sending out more details about this.
Apparently, there'll be a few Pinguicula experts giving a talk too,
including THE Juerg Steiger. In fact, many appologies again to Juerg. I
received your invitation to give a talk in Switzerland, but I didn't
have time to answer it initially and then it was erased from my computer
together with a similar message from a friend of yours. I'd be glad and
honoured to follow up on your invitation, I just have to see if I can fit
Switzerland into my plans.
Last of all, I'd like to ask for some help from our Japanese
friends. The reason I've been so busy lately is because I've been
accepted for a scholarship given by the Japanese government (called
Monbusho) to spend 2 years in Japan. I had to fill out tons of paperwork,
have medical examinations, translate pages and pages of work, and the
only thing remaining for me to go is to find a university that will
accept me. I have to find one ASAP or else I lose the scholarship! I'm
writing to numerous universities all over Japan but would like some tips
from the natives. Hopefully there's someone out there studying or
working in one of these to help me out.
What I'm mostly interested in is finding a lab that's working
with DNA sequencing. I'm about to begin extracting DNA from all of my
native Drosera species and varieties. What I would like to do is sequence
a specific gene (or segment of a gene) like the rbc-L or the ssu-rDNA and
carry out a phylogenetic study on these plants based on their DNA
sequences, adding to this the taxonomical and ecological info I've been
gathering for the past 5 years. So I'm hoping to find a professor in some
university (hopefully a big one near one of the large urban centers!)
willing to take me in for an internship to carry out this project.
Thanks,
Fernando Rivadavia
Sao Paulo, Brazil