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.

How many genes does it take to make a new species?

Posted on 5 Aug, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Three-spined sticklebacks are speciation machines. When retreating glaciers exposed lakes and rivers around the coasts of northern North America and Eurasia, these armor-plated little fish colonized the new freshwater habitats from the ocean, and adapted to the threats and resources … Continue reading →

Posted in genomics, population genetics, quantitative genetics, speciation | Tagged , | 5 Comments

What we're reading: resurrected rodent teeth, the genetic origin of sex, and what's in your ANOVA?

Posted on 1 Aug, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Harjunmaa E, K Seidel, T Häkkinen, E Renvoisé, IJ Corfe, A Kallonen, Z-Q Zhang, Alistair R. Evans, ML Mikkola, I Salazar-Ciudad, OD Klein, and & J Jernvall. 2014. Replaying evolutionary transitions from the dental fossil record. Nature. … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: The creosote-eating gut microbes of wood rats, the molecular taxonomy of bats' diets, and drift in experimental evolution

Posted on 25 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Kohl, K. D., Weiss, R. B., Cox, J., Dale, C., Denise Dearing, M. (2014), Gut microbes of mammalian herbivores facilitate intake of plant toxins. Ecology Letters. doi: 10.1111/ele.12329. Creosote toxins altered the population structure of the gut … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Experimental evolution of beetles' immunity, adaptive introgression in mussels, and sexual harassment in the field

Posted on 18 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Joop G., O. Roth, P. Schmid-Hempel, and J. Kurtz. 2014. Experimental evolution of external immune defences in the red flour beetle. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 27: 1562–1571. doi: 10.1111/jeb.12406. Intriguingly, we found indication for an interme- diate … Continue reading →

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Peer review, reviewed

Posted on 16 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Rebecca Schuman, who has almost single-handedly turned Slate into one of best big websites for coverage of the many trials and tribulations of academia, turns to peer review for scholarly journals, in which an author’s academic peers volunteer to weigh … Continue reading →

Posted in peer review, science publishing | 6 Comments

What we're reading: Sexual selection and fish placentas, SNPs versus observational pedigrees, and the stupidest statement ever on replication

Posted on 11 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Pollux BJA, RW Meredith, MS Springer, DN Reznick. 2014. The evolution of the placenta drives a shift in sexual selection in livebearing fish. Nature. doi: 10.1038/nature13451. We show that post-zygotic maternal provisioning by means of a placenta … Continue reading →

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What we're reading: Fish gut microbes, Denisovan origins of Tibetan altitude adaptation, and the curious costs of journal subscriptions

Posted on 4 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

In the journals Bolnick, D. I., L. K. Snowberg, P. E. Hirsch, C. L. Lauber, R. Knight, J. G. Caporaso, and R. Svanbäck. 2014. Individuals’ diet diversity influences gut microbial diversity in two freshwater fish (threespine stickleback and Eurasian perch). … Continue reading →

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Bayesian Markov-chain Monte Carlo in population genetics

Posted on 1 Jul, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

This is a guest post by Arun Sethuraman, a postdoctoral associate with Jody Hey, studying statistical models for divergence population genetics in the Department of Biology at Temple University. You can also find him on Twitter, and on his short story blog. Prompted by the great response … Continue reading →

Posted in methods, population genetics, software | Tagged , | 3 Comments

#Evol2014 in tweets

Posted on 26 Jun, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Getting free banana from anti-evolutionist on street outside #Evol2014 pic.twitter.com/FLL5zmOHgA — Mohamed Noor (@mafnoor) June 21, 2014 I think it’s fair to say that I was a pioneer of Twitter at the Evolution meetings—back when I set up the website … Continue reading →

Posted in blogging, community, conferences | Tagged , | 3 Comments

#Evol2014: See you in Raleigh!

Posted on 19 Jun, 2014 by Jeremy Yoder

Evolution 2014, the joint annual meeting of the the American Society of Naturalists, the Society of Systematic Biologists, and the Society for the Study of Evolution, begins this Friday in Raleigh, North Carolina. Many of us are already en route … Continue reading →

Posted in conferences | Tagged | 1 Comment