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Category Archives: book review
Four science books for 2022
The Molecular Ecologist receives a small commission for purchases made on Amazon.com via links from this post. Books occupy a curious place in my reading life. I read a lot as an academic biologist, from research papers to grant proposals … Continue reading
Posted in book review, ecology, evolution, natural history, politics
Tagged forest conservation, J.B.S. Haldane, paleontology, sensory biology
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The forest, the trees, and the fungal ties that bind
The following is a guest post by Erin Zess, a Postdoctoral Researcher with the MOI Lab in the Department of Plant Biology at the Carnegie Institution for Science. Erin is on Twitter at @ZessingAround. The Molecular Ecologist uses affiliate links for books … Continue reading
Posted in book review, ecology, fieldwork, natural history, plants
Tagged Finding the Mother Tree, forestry, mycorrhizae, Suzanne Simard
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Book review: Jonathan Losos' Improbable Destinies
Is evolution predictable? This is one of the Big Questions, as much philosophy as it is biology and no less important for not really having an answer. You’re probably familiar with it as the rhetorical peg for countless talks on … Continue reading
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Resurrecting our ghosts: Helen Pilcher’s Bring Back the King
On September 7, 1936, at the Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, Tasmania, a wolf-like creature named Benjamin paced up and down in his cage. As night fell, temperatures grew cooler. The keepers, underpaid and struggling themselves, had forgotten to open the … Continue reading
Posted in book review, conservation, genomics
Tagged de-extinction, passenger pigeon, thylacine
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My review of Lab Girl for the LA Review of Books
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 “bookshelf” recommendations for Chronicle Vitae. My full-length review of Lab Girl is now online … Continue reading
Personal narrative of a journey from zoos to academia
Back in February, the South Carolina Aquarium and The Center for Humans and Nature hosted the finale in the Holland Lifelong Learning series of “Why do zoos and aquariums matter?” in Charleston. I’ll admit, at first, the main reason I … Continue reading
Posted in blogging, book review, career, community, conservation, evolution, natural history
Tagged aquaria, conservation, Humboldt, marine biology, Monterey, Sylvia Earle, zoos
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How to Clone a Mammoth: When science fiction becomes reality
When I explain that I study the woolly mammoth, sooner or later (and usually right away) comes the question, “Are you going to clone a mammoth?” From childish excitement to real scientific interest, the idea of cloning a mammoth raises … Continue reading
Posted in book review, Paleogenomics
Tagged ancient DNA, How to clone a mammoth, mammoth, shapiro
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Don't trust your data: reviewing Bioinformatics Data Skills
There is little debate on the importance of bioinformatics for the present and future of science. As molecular ecologists, we are likely more aware of this than most disciplines due to the data explosion that has accompanied the wide application of … Continue reading
Bigger on the inside
Evolutionary biology is, fundamentally, the study of how populations of living things change over time. Different creatures live different lives, and at any given point in time they seem to do so relatively well, which poses a question: how do … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, book review, evolution, genomics
Tagged Andreas Wagner, genotype networks
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How A Troublesome Inheritance gets human genetics wrong
Probably since before the origin of modern Homo sapiens, we have known that people from other places—the next village over, the other side of the mountains, or some distant and unexplored land—were different from us. Some of those differences were … Continue reading