Franklin & Marshall College

With Assistant Professor of Biology Joe Thompson, Taylor investigated the function of squid mantle muscles in locomotion. This required her to attach ultrasonic transducers to live long-finned and oval squid while they jetted off and tried to jump out of their tanks. The purpose of the research was to determine how muscles function in invertebrates.

"We were testing a model that suggests squid muscle fibers don't contract the same amount, which would mean that the way they're using their muscles may be energetically inefficient," Taylor says. "The existence of nonuniform contraction would cause a lot of potential challenges for the muscle, so we want to see if this really happens."

So far, the nonuniform contraction hypothesis appears to be correct. The findings may lead other scientists to reconsider their assumptions concerning how muscles function. "It's more complicated than we thought," Taylor says. "Previous research on vertebrate muscle may not apply to the muscles of invertebrates with cylindrical organs, such as the siphons of clams or mantles of squids."

Working at the Darling Marine Center at the University of Maine, Taylor experimented with squids ranging in size from 4 inches to 18 inches. Taylor, a biochemistry and molecular biology major, says she expected to work with smaller, less complex organisms. "It's surprising to be working with live squids. It's pretty exciting."

She and Thompson have traveled to Maine the past two summers from mid-June to mid-August. Living in the dorms, she enjoyed the seclusion of the remote location and the recreation it offered. "It's beautiful and a lot of fun," she says. "You're on this isolated campus right on the water in the Gulf of Maine. I think that the work that we're doing is fun, too, because we actually have to catch the squid. We go out at night and shine lights off the dock and try to get them with a cast net."

Thompson, Taylor's Hackman adviser, praises Taylor's work ethic and willingness to get her hands - and her face - dirty in the pursuit of scientific knowledge. "She even endured painful nibbling of her fingertips by some squid last summer in the interests of finishing a tricky surgery," he says.

Although Taylor planned to attend medical school after graduating, she is now considering a broader range of options, including the possibility of earning a Ph.D. in biology or marine biology. Taylor says she never considered a career in research until she tried it.

"I loved it so much I think this is what I want to do for the rest of my life," she says.