What we're reading

Office Bookshelf

As we head into the weekend, here’s a few things we’ve noticed that might be worth your screen-time.
In the journals
Epps, C.W., Wasser, S.K., Keim, J.L., Mutayoba, B.M. & Brashares, J.S. 2013. Quantifying past and present connectivity illuminates a rapidly changing landscape for the African elephant. Molecular Ecology. doi: 10.1111/mec.12198

The connectivity of elephant populations in Tanza- nian protected areas reflects a landscape in transition: elephants are still moving surprising distances outside protected areas (Fig. 2), even over steep terrain and near human settlements, but areas of dense human set- tlement and poaching threats have likely greatly reduced or eliminated many such movements (Figs 3 and 4).

Sunday, J.M. & Hart, M.W. 2013. Sea star populations diverge by positive selection at a sperm-egg compatibility locus. Ecology and Evolution. doi: 10.1002/ece3.487

We find a different pattern of selection in the bindin locus in two geographically separated populations of a single species. Our results specifically indicate that there are sites under positive selection (dN > dS) in one population that are under purifying or neutral selection in the other population (dN ≤ dS), and the sites found to be under positive selection differed between the two populations.

In the blogosphere
A non-exhaustive list of hurdles for crowdfunding science.
The U.S. National Science Foundation Division of Environmental Biology (NSF-DEB) has launched a blog.

About Jeremy Yoder

Jeremy B. Yoder is an Associate Professor of Biology at California State University Northridge, studying the evolution and coevolution of interacting species, especially mutualists. He is a collaborator with the Joshua Tree Genome Project and the Queer in STEM study of LGBTQ experiences in scientific careers. He has written for the website of Scientific American, the LA Review of Books, the Chronicle of Higher Education, The Awl, and Slate.
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