キャリアニュース2019年12月12～18日

This summer, I killed a bird while on a research trip. The project leader and I were sitting under a tree, protected from the hot sun, while we placed leg bands on birds we had just caught. I hadn't handled a bird in a year, and I was nervous that it would escape. I held the bird tightly as it struggled in my hand. Then, as I readjusted my grip, I saw it was lying limp. “Is he OK?” I asked the project leader in a shaky voice. I handed her the bird and she looked down uncomfortably, setting it on the ground. We both stared at it, wishing the wind blowing its chest feathers was actually its heartbeat returning. </br>![][1]</img> ILLUSTRATION: ROBERT NEUBECKER > “As researchers, we must be mindful of the ethical dimensions of our work.” I'm not an ornithologist; I'm a Ph.D. student who studies soil biology. But I had worked on birds as an undergraduate student, and I was assisting the project leader, a close friend, with her research. I make the cross-country trip each year to hel