Category Archives: Uncategorized

How do you use genome-wide diversity in conservation?

Measuring how genome-wide diversity matters to threatened species has been a constant endeavor of conservation genetics, and still is in the era of genomics. But what should we do with the fact that it often do not correlate with IUCN Red List categories, a measure of species’ threat status? Continue reading

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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 , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Online Resources for Student/Postdoc/Faculty Professional Development

I’m fascinated by the question of how someone learns to be a good scientist, academic, colleague, collaborator, mentor, etc. The obvious answer is that we learn from our peers and mentors during our PhD and postdoctoral training. However, especially as … Continue reading

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Pre-NewPI Summer To Do List

As my last postdoc summer begins (holy sh*t), I’ve been thinking a lot about how to prepare for the fall – what should I be doing in now to set myself up for success in my first year on the … Continue reading

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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

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Raising boys – Not for the faint of heart

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

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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What next for DNA barcoding?

I’m a late adopter of DNA barcoding. As a botanist it has often felt that DNA barcoding wasn’t really for me. Unlike in animals, where the mitochondrial gene CO1 often tracks species boundaries, in plants, there is rarely an exact … Continue reading

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It's all because of the holobiont

It’s conference season at the Molecular Ecologist. I went for the first time to a Gordon Research Conference (GRC). GRCs @GordonConf are well known for their efforts to foster an informal and inclusive atmosphere where frontier research in the biological, … Continue reading

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Scott Edwards awarded the 2019 Molecular Ecology Prize

The 2019 Molecular Ecology prize has been awarded to Scott Edwards for an illustrious career that has combined rigorous scientific achievement with a long and consistent record of mentoring and promoting early-career scientists. Proficient at both empirical and theoretical studies, Edwards … Continue reading

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