Last weekend I attended the 109th Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Science. I had never been to one before and I decided to go.

The meeting was held on Friday, April 25 and Saturday, April 26 at Clarke College in Dubuque.

I had a feeling that it would be one of those scientific meetings where it is nearly impossible to keep my eyes open during the speeches. But whoever organized the meeting was a genius. The speeches were no longer than 15 minutes each and the moderators enforced that fairly strictly. I think what kept me awake was the uncomfortable tension that resulted whenever the moderator stood up and looked at her watch and the speaker was still foolishly stammering his introductory remarks. I figure if you can’t tell people what you are doing in 15 minutes or less, then you are doing too much.

A number of scientists from around Iowa and the Midwest presented on a variety of topics ranging from anthropology to physics. It never got dull. I learned a little bit about a lot of things. That’s always good for conversation at parties or on cheap beer nights at the bars.

Although it was a fairly low budget meeting, there was free juice, cookies and bagels all day. That was even if you didn’t attend any of the paid meals, which I didn’t, being a poor graduate student.

On Saturday morning speeches continued. Most of these were by graduate students. The coolest speech was, of course, the one about the three legged frogs which have been popping up around Minnesota and Iowa. I think they said it had something to do with disease, but I was just digging the cool pictures of the mutant frogs.

On the registration form I had filled out a few weeks before the meeting, participants could choose from one of three special events to attend during the Saturday afternoon portion of the meeting.

I chose the Frogs and Fish field trip over Mississippi River Museums, and City Tour of Dubuque for obvious reasons.

The trip was more of a tadpole and minnow hunt. Mostly all we caught was a bunch of little creek chubs. However, we did catch a rare subspecies of garter snake, and we got to see a doe, a deer, a female deer.

The deer was very tame and for some reason it just kept glaring at us. Later, I found out why when I stumbled across a pile of deer feet left behind by a poacher. I usually have a pretty strong stomach, but the whole scene with that innocent doe looking at us and the pile of maggot-ridden deer bones was pretty powerful. I managed not to hurl. All things considered, it was a very productive weekend.

On the drive home, I passed through Waterloo. It was there, as I contemplated the mating rituals of red-winged blackbirds, that I saw a woman on a leash being “walked,” I suppose, by a man. It was an impressive display of human culture and capped off what was one of the most fun science experiences I have had this year. Until the Loess Hills Prairie Seminar on May 30, that is.