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.

Scanning the genome for local adaptation

One of the most obvious and important applications of evolutionary genetics is in figuring out whether natural biological communities are going to be able to adapt to global climate change. The projected rate of climate change over then next century … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, association genetics, genomics, next generation sequencing | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

What we're reading: Stick insects, Gulf of Mexico oysters, and how many peer reviewers it takes to change a lightbulb joke?

In the journals Comeault, A. a., V. Soria-Carrasco, Z. Gompert, T. E. Farkas, C. A. Buerkle, T. L. Parchman, and P. Nosil. 2014. Genome-wide association mapping of phenotypic traits subject to a range of intensities of natural selection in Timema … Continue reading

Posted in linkfest | 1 Comment

Identifying and quantifying fitness effects across loci

The following guest post by Ethan Jewett is cross-posted from the is cross-posted from the CEHG blog at Stanford. Enjoy! The degree to which similarities and differences among species are the result of natural selection, rather than genetic drift, is … Continue reading

Posted in adaptation, genomics, population genetics, theory | 1 Comment

What we're reading: Polygenic mutation-selection balance, demographics of invading mice, and the U.S. consensus on climate change

In the journals de Vladar HP, N Barton. 2014. Stability and response of polygenic traits to stabilizing selection and mutation. Genetics. doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.159111. The interplay between stabilizing selection and mutation leads to a sharp transition: alleles with effects smaller than … Continue reading

Posted in linkfest | Leave a comment

Why we sign our peer reviews

Last week I posted the results from a brief survey of our readers, asking whether they usually sign their peer reviews. In that small sample of evolutionary ecologists, the overwhelming majority said they review anonymously, though many participants seem to … Continue reading

Posted in career, community, peer review, science publishing | 6 Comments

Why we don't sign our peer reviews

Last week I posted the results from a brief survey of our readers, asking whether they usually sign their peer reviews. In that small sample of evolutionary ecologists, the overwhelming majority said they review anonymously, though many participants seem to … Continue reading

Posted in career, community, peer review, science publishing | 4 Comments

What we're reading: Coevolving diversity, gut microbiota and gas, and killing the phrase "next-generation sequencing"

In the journals Boots M., A. White, A. Best, and R. Bowers. 2014. How specificity and epidemiology drive the coevolution of static trait diversity in hosts and parasites. Evolution. doi: 10.1111/evo.12393 We examine theoretically how epidemiological feedbacks and the characteristics … Continue reading

Posted in linkfest | Leave a comment

Do we sign our peer reviews? Mostly, no.

Update, 24 November 2014: There’s been a renewed interest in this post, so now is as good a time as any to note that, in addition to this survey, I also posted written responses from folks who choose to sign … Continue reading

Posted in community, peer review, science publishing | 11 Comments

What we're reading: Genomics for conservation, SNPs versus microsats, and imbalance in the peer-review ecosystem

In the journals Harrisson K.A., A. Pavlova, M. Telonis-Scott and P. Sunnucks. 2014. Using genomics to characterize evolutionary potential for conservation of wild populations. Evolutionary Applications. doi: 10.1111/eva.12149. … screening genome-wide variation should be a sensible approach that may provide … Continue reading

Posted in linkfest | Leave a comment

Do you sign your peer reviews?

Update: The survey is now closed! Thanks to everyone who participated—I’ll post the results soon. Yesterday John Stanton-Geddes e-mailed me and Tim Vines to ask about writing a post, or a series of posts, on the question of whether or … Continue reading

Posted in peer review, science publishing | 1 Comment