Author Archives: Jeremy Yoder

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.

Phylogeny of the elves illustrates why we need to sample elf DNA immediately

Posted on 21 Dec, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

Last year for Christmas Eve, Dominic Evangelista reconstructed the evolutionary history of elves and elf-like fantasy creatures in a tour-de-force of nerd crossover. Seriously, go read that piece if you haven’t. It has an alternate abstract in Elvish. As with … Continue reading →

Posted in DNA barcoding, phylogenetics, primates, species delimitation | Tagged , , , , , | 5 Comments

Friday action item: Visit a local library

Posted on 16 Dec, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

In the wake of the recent U.S. election, we’ve started these “Friday Action Item” posts with ideas about specific things you can do to support science — from calling Congress to helping crowd-fund a cool new research project. Got a … Continue reading →

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Friday action item: Support the ACLU

Posted on 9 Dec, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

In the wake of the recent U.S. election, we’ve started these “Friday Action Item” posts with ideas about specific things you can do to support science — from calling Congress to helping crowd-fund a cool new research project. Got a … Continue reading →

Posted in Action Item, community | Tagged , | 2 Comments

Friday Action Item: Get involved with a scientific society

Posted on 2 Dec, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

In the wake of the recent U.S. election, we at *The Molecular Ecologist wanted to better use the site to help organize our community’s support for scientific inquiry and science education under an administration that may be quite unfriendly to … Continue reading →

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Friday Action Item: Support science teaching through Donors Choose

Posted on 25 Nov, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

In the wake of the recent U.S. election, we at *The Molecular Ecologist wanted to better use the site to help organize our community’s support for scientific inquiry and science education under an administration that may be quite unfriendly to … Continue reading →

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The road ahead

Posted on 22 Nov, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

It’s been almost two weeks since we woke up to the reality that Donald Trump — the failed casino mogul, the virtuoso tax-dodger, the reality-show star, the self-described serial sexual assailant, the Ku Klux Klan endorsee and darling of white … Continue reading →

Posted in citizen science, community, funding, NIH, NSF, politics, United States | 29 Comments

At the molecular level, there's more than one way to fly higher

Posted on 3 Nov, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

Parallel adaptation is coming into its own lately, as we’re increasingly able to examine the molecular changes underlying similar adaptations in distantly related species. A fundamental prediction of evolutionary theory is that species coping with the same environment should converge … Continue reading →

Posted in birds, evolution, mutation, natural history, phylogenetics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Gene expression shows how a plant and its mutualists are better together

Posted on 19 Oct, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

No living thing is an island, and many of the encounters between living things that happen every day are not antagonistic or even indifferent, but mutually beneficial. Two such mutualisms that could be among the most important on the planet … Continue reading →

Posted in microbiology, next generation sequencing, plants, RNAseq | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

The tarsier's nuclear genome comes with a bonus mitochodrial genome

Posted on 7 Oct, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

This week Nature Communications published a paper presenting a new genome assembly for Tarsius syrichta, the Phillipine tarsier. Tarsiers are the subject of one of the best of Ze Frank’s “True Facts” videos, and they occupy an interesting place in … Continue reading →

Posted in evolution, genomics, natural history | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

My review of Lab Girl for the LA Review of Books

Posted on 18 Jul, 2016 by Jeremy Yoder

The Molecular Ecologist receives a small commission for purchases made on Bookshop.org via links from this post. NB: Cross-posted from my personal blog. You have surely, by now, heard all about Hope Jahren’s terrific scientific memoir Lab Girl, including as one of my … Continue reading →

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