Author Archives: Kathleen Grogan

Raising boys – Not for the faint of heart

Posted on 30 March, 2020 by Kathleen Grogan

According to all of my parent friends, raising girls is quite different from raising boys, from the toys to the tantrums, the clothes to the bathroom habits, even for the most liberal, gender-neutral of my friends. In most sexually dimorphic … Continue reading →

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Co-opting responses for old enemies

Posted on 24 March, 2020 by Kathleen Grogan

On Friday, Shelby Gantt introduced us to an unusual type of parasite, the brood parasite! As Shelby eloquently described, brood parasitism is when an individual’s offspring are raised by someone else who incurs a cost to raising these offspring. The … Continue reading →

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How many samples do you need to investigate relationships between genetic make-up & immune function?

Posted on 24 February, 2020 by Kathleen Grogan

When an organism is exposed to a pathogen, what determines their ability to resist or recover from infection? Mounting an effective immune response is a complex dance with multiple partners, changing tempos, and maybe even a costume change or two: … Continue reading →

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Inbreeding and the cougar genome

Posted on 21 February, 2020 by Kathleen Grogan

This week, some of my favorite #scicomm games on Twitter are teaming up with March Mammal Madness to reveal this year’s #2020MMM contestants in my favorite “battle of the fittest.” Specifically, today (2/21/2020) at 12:30 pm EST, Dr. Michelle LaRue … Continue reading →

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The genomic & physiological basis of high altitude adaptation in North American deer mice

Posted on 31 January, 2020 by Kathleen Grogan

In biology, there are many ways to solve evolutionary ‘challenges’ so it always amazes me when organisms solve them in similar ways. And I love a good paper that adds to our attempts to dissect multi-trait adaptations. Recently, Schweizer et … Continue reading →

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