Hey y’all!
I am now a contributor to The Molecular Ecologist. You can read the introduction of new contributors here, and my first post, about invasive species (I mean… obviously) is up today! So check it out, if you are of a mind. I have no plans to shut down Alien Plantation, or anything, and who knows, this may trigger a flurry of blog writing activity!
Like this, only it last for a few days… Image from Emergency Brake from Wikimedia Commons.
There is still time to contribute to the science of science communication! See the bottom of this post to do so AND also win prizes. Survey closes Nov 20, 2015.
This may, perhaps, be more than you needed to know. But I am allergic to poison ivy. No big deal, you might think. You’re a botanist. Surely you know what it looks like! Just avoid it.
Hi cats and kittens.
Next month I’m starting a postdoc position at Colorado State University working on a whole new weedy plant! (Don’t worry, knapweed, I still love-hate you.) I’m planning some (hopefully) fun sci-comm gems related to this project, perhaps even a small citizen science project that YOU could help me out on. We’ll see how it goes. For now, let’s say I’m getting just a *tad* closer to my childhood dream of being Indiana Jones.
But no need for YOU to wait, YOU can help science now. Continue, dear Reader!
![SCIENCE WANTS YOU! By James Montgomery Flagg (http://www.usscreen.com/american_spirit/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f3/Uncle_Sam_%28pointing_finger%29.jpg)
SCIENCE WANTS YOU! By James Montgomery Flagg (http://www.usscreen.com/american_spirit/) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Starting in September, I will be resuming my TAing duties for the UBC class BIOL 343: Plants and People, this time co-taught by Profs. Shona Ellis and Kathryn Zeiler. Hopefully that means more juicy ethnobotany nuggets on the horizon, gentle reader.
Hello gentle reader! It’s been ages, I know. But I’ve been scheming schemes. I’ve been working on a little secret project with game designer Elizabeth Steward. We are designing a game about invasive species (with a dollop of evolution, and a smattering of economics)! It’s still in the works, but perhaps you would like to check out what we have so far? PLAGUE OF SPECIES!!! Every time I start thinking about this, I get almost too excited for intelligent speech. So that could be a problem.
Nuts…
So, long time, no talk, gentle reader. That’s because I’ve been writing a paper (my first first-authored paper, if you must know) and I feel really guilty about extraneous writing activities, like somehow I am cheating on my paper. How can I justify reading up on a tasty tuber or invasive insect and crafting its story and biology into an intriguing knowledge nugget, when mountains of data await re-analysis for the billionth time, and co-authors deserve satisfaction? How indeed?
Here’s a rough graph of germination rate from field collected seed of the invasive weed I work on, Centaurea diffusa (seen here). Each point represents a different maternal plant from 57 different populations, with native individuals in red and invasive individuals in black. I have collections that were up to 8 years old when I ran this trial, and no decrease in germination rate! That’s just silly! I’m sure it doesn’t hurt with the being invasive and all.
I shamelessly submitted a few posts of mine to Open Lab. If you are looking for quality science writing, you should probably check the list of nominated posts. Or submit nominations of your own. And cross your fingers for me!
Common question: Why should we worry about species moving around, anyway, haven’t they always done that? A forest is a just a forest and a grassland is just a grassland after all. What are you getting so worked up about? Aren’t humans the worst invasives?
Answer: Yeah, humans are the worst invasives, but I can’t really justify mass extirpations for humans. Not yet, anyway. Though limiting birth rates probably isn’t a terrible idea.
Following an awesome workshop on Science and Social Media at ESA run by Sandra Chung and Jacquelyn Gill, I am inspired to move my regular blogging day to Mondays (also, I may be behind…). So look for the new post then! And, if you are interested in how social media can benefit your science, check out the slides from that great workshop. Discussion and collaboration are the grease that enables the wheels of science to turn! And I finally figured out what that “.” is suppose to be at the front of some tweets…
Alien Plantation 