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Category Archives: howto
Recent reading: 21 Jan 2022
The period between semesters is supposed to be quiet. I’ve been mentally dumping things to do into this one — paper revisions, reviewing service, analysis of long-awaited new data, a first draft of a new grant, writing my (eek) application … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, ecology, evolution, genomics, howto, journal club
Tagged dispersal, mutualism
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Recent reading: 7 Jan 2022
It’s a new year, and while many of the challenges of 2020 and 2021 don’t show any sign of letting up, I’m trying to pick up some habits that fell by the wayside while I juggled fully online semesters and … Continue reading
Posted in adaptation, evolution, genomics, howto, journal club
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In the pipeline – Part 1: ‘Plan, plan, and plan some more’
So you’ve decided it’s time to finally get around to starting that sequencing project. But before you aimlessly leap into it and generate terabytes of sequencing data, just STOP. It’s far too tempting to rush into sequencing projects for a … Continue reading
Posted in bioinformatics, evolution, genomics, howto, methods, population genetics, Uncategorized
Tagged assembly, bioinformatics, genetics, genomics, In the pipeline, population genetics, Sequencing
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Simple rules for organizing data in a spreadsheet
Most scientists collect and organize at least some data in spreadsheets, usually Excel or Google Sheets, despite the potential pitfalls of using such products (there are even archives of spreadsheet horror stories). The most commonly bemoaned problem in Biology, that … Continue reading
Posted in data archiving, howto, methods
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The Molecular Ecologist Podcast: What do you look for in a journal?
A new episode of The Molecular Ecologist Podcast is now out on Anchor.fm. In this episode, we turn to a question that every academic scientist has to answer at some point: How do you choose a scientific journal to receive your paper? Kelle … Continue reading
The Molecular Ecologist Podcast: Rivers and rabbit resistance
A new episode of The Molecular Ecologist Podcast is now out on Anchor.fm. In this episode, Sarah Shainker tells us about how population genetic structure works differently in river drainages; Kelle Freel recaps her reading on the history of rabbits and rabbit-killing viruses … Continue reading
Posted in Action Item, career, community ecology, conservation, howto, microbiology, TME Podcast
Tagged invasion, rabbits, Rivers, sourdough
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The Molecular Ecologist Podcast: Color me viral edition
A new episode of The Molecular Ecologist Podcast is now out on Anchor.fm. In this episode, Patrícia Chrzanová Pečnerová discusses resources for using color to make scientific figures clear and appealing; Stacy Krueger-Hadfield tells us about the complex considerations surrounding tracking and controlling … Continue reading
Posted in career, howto, microbiology, TME Podcast
Tagged colors, invasion, NewPI, viruses
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Simple tools for mastering color in scientific figures
Call me a procrastinator but I strongly believe that spending time to select a good color scheme can work miracles with a plot, paper, or presentation. In science, it’s generally not expected that you invest time into a thought process … Continue reading
Posted in howto, methods, Science Communication, science publishing
Tagged colors, data visualization, design, Figures, graphics, how to, palettes, presentation, R, schemes, tools
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Applying for a faculty job is a full-time job – the financial burden
Last week I talked about the ‘workload’ of applying for a tenure-track faculty job (let’s call them TT jobs). This week, I want to talk about a different load – the financial one. This burden was a surprise to me, … Continue reading
Posted in career, howto, Uncategorized
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Applying for faculty jobs is a full-time job – The 'workload'
As a postdoc in the last year of her funding, I’ve spent the last year applying for tenure-track faculty jobs. I’m not ready to talk about the outcome yet, but I do want to talk about the process and what … Continue reading