Category Archives: adaptation

Don’t ask “When is it coevolution?” — ask “How is it coevolution?”

Ask me to pick a single word that describes what I study, and I’ll typically say “coevolution.” This is probably true of most evolutionary biologists who study interactions between species — plants and pollinators, hosts and symbionts, predators and prey, et … Continue reading

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2022 Molecular Ecology Prize goes to Kerstin Johannesson, for building big science to study a tiny marine snail

The Molecular Ecology Prize Committee has announced the 2022 recipient of the award, which recognizes an outstanding scientist who has made significant contributions to the still-young field of molecular ecology: The Molecular Ecology Prize Committee is pleased to announce that … Continue reading

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Recent reading: 4 March 2022

It’s now two weeks since I resumed in-person teaching, and so far, so good. It’s shockingly refreshing to actually interact with students directly, even with everyone masked, and to be able to just improvise with a specimen picked up on … Continue reading

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Recent reading: 18 Feb 2022

Fieldwork in the spring is always a bit tricky, but I’ve fortunately been able to put my teaching commitment aside for a week to help plant Joshua tree seedlings in an ongoing experiment in climate adaptation. It was a scramble … Continue reading

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Recent reading: 4 Feb 2022

It’s been an eventual two weeks in evolutionary biology. Meanwhile, I’ve somehow kept a lab-field course on track with minimal in person engagement, planned a bit for actual fieldwork in a couple weeks from now, and started wrangling a couple … Continue reading

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Recent reading: 21 Jan 2022

The period between semesters is supposed to be quiet. I’ve been mentally dumping things to do into this one — paper revisions, reviewing service, analysis of long-awaited new data, a first draft of a new grant, writing my (eek) application … Continue reading

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Recent reading: 7 Jan 2022

It’s a new year, and while many of the challenges of 2020 and 2021 don’t show any sign of letting up, I’m trying to pick up some habits that fell by the wayside while I juggled fully online semesters and … Continue reading

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These worms develop differently depending on their parents’ genes — even the ones they don’t inherit

The following is a guest post by Ornob Alam, a graduate student in Michael Purugganan’s lab at New York University. Ornob’s PhD projects examine the demographic and evolutionary history of domesticated Asian rice in the context of past climate change and human … Continue reading

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An enduring evolutionary mystery – the consequences of sex are shaped by more than sex itself

Rather shockingly, sexual reproduction remains an enigma – despite over a century of study. Theory has identified the costs and benefits of sex, illustrating why almost all* eukaryotes go to the trouble, at least occasionally. * Even supposedly obligate asexuals … Continue reading

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How butterflies match their wings

The following is a guest post by Ornob Alam, a graduate student in Michael Purugganan’s lab at New York University. Ornob’s PhD projects examine the demographic and evolutionary history of domesticated Asian rice in the context of past climate change … Continue reading

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