Sometimes, when I think a little extra motivation is required, I (jokingly) threaten my students that I may switch to working on leeches. I explain to them that the way my colleague Mark Siddall and his lab at the AMNH collect leeches is to roll up their pant legs and walk into the water.

I met Mark when I was a postdoc at the museum, and he and I have worked together on a few leech genome sizes (though not enough yet -- I still want to tackle this group), and now I am very pleased to note (via The Loom) that Mark has launched a leech blog.

So go and check out BdellaNea and see why leeches are great.