I cold-emailed Ralph as a second-year grad student: I wanted to work on moss but had no idea what I was doing. He invited me to spend weeks in his lab, joined my committee, and supported me throughout my PhD - my thesis project would 100% not have been possible without his generosity and kindness
Ralph was incredibly generous when I wanted to start working on moss. He invited me to visit his lab for a day and talk to/shadow people in his lab.
But I don't think it will be easy to convey why that is so unless we have a better standard of discourse about genetics more generally. The word eugenics is rightly floated in this context, but we now understand why early ideas about eugenics were scientifically and not just ethically flawed. /3
I have so many examples of students questioning whether I know enough about a topic to teach it. I asked in faculty meeting "who has been questioned whether they are qualified to teach a class?" The women raised their hands, the men didn't. It's definitely rooted in sexism and racism.
it's "whales are fish" day in Principles of Biology
What would you think if a hypothetical biology professor at a hypothetical public university in a state starting with an N, who was involved in helping organize a Stand Up for Science Rally this week, and got a visit from their hypothetical Department chair and... 1/2
Diaspora/émigré politics is wild stuff, man.
I think people think we're exaggerating when we say the widespread use of the term "biological sex" as a term itself isn't organic. This data isn't anomalous, it comports with everything we've seen about the specific use of the term.
AI is going to trash every single way that we had modernised university teaching and send us back to handwritten exams and vivas for every assessment. Which will bring back every problem with those assessment models (and make us seem even more out-of-touch even as we just try to do meaningful work).
If you haven't yet changed how you teach and evaluate thanks to AI, you probably need to. This is not something that educators asked to happen, but it is worth noting what is out there - in this case an OpenClaw tool designed to cheat.
"so basically, penetrance is fake?" - student, 1 inch away from genetics enlightenment
BREAKING: The Department of Education has ended its directive that attempted to restrict diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in schools nationwide.
This is a victory for academic freedom and education equity.
(to be fair so are roses…)
Roses are red
But are violets blue?
They’re literally named
After a different hue
Happy birthday to one of my favourite haters, Charles Darwin
listen guys let me tell you something I don’t know what’s on the midterm either until the week of the midterm when I make the exam
Without naming your job, tell me something you say over and over again at work.
"That is SUCH a great question!!"
The Church Evolution Lab (CEL@NYU) is hiring a postdoc! We have several new projects to study the genomic basis of biodiversity in model clades – especially Hawaiian Drosophila. apply.interfolio.com/179354
Come join our new group, you can study bugs and live in NYC! Feel free to share widely!
pain to set up the first time but really changes the dynamic of coding assignments in a very nice way!
Maybe you know already, but NYU has gradescope, which will host unit tests and run them on student submissions and grade based on results (it also can share outputs with them and I’ve set that up in the past to give specific feedback hints in response to common errors)
This must be weird news to see if you’re one of the literally hundreds or even thousands of university administrators who preemptively censored faculty, scrubbed websites, changed the names of centers, etc.
PEQG! My favorite conference ever*. Single session, fantastic talks, great discussions. Only once every 2 years. And in the best conference location too! Abstract deadline coming up Feb 5!
*Disclosure: I am required to say it's the best conference because it is and I told my mom I wouldn't lie.
“O Christmas stonewort, o Christmas stonewort”
Season’s greeting from the Characeae 🎄
This whole thing is amazing, but tucked away in a dropdown at the end of the markdown is... quite seriously the best essay I've read on the environmental impacts of AI?
just need a good control (i.e. chromosomal locus you're sure is present at 1x in the same bacterium) and you get quite good resolution (in plants, definitely 1x vs 3x, very likely 1x vs 2x)
want to jump in here with a recommendation to check out Joan Roughgarden, who is an evolutionary biologist, trans, and has thought a lot about the intersection of those two (and wrote two books about sex and gender from an evolutionary bio perspective!)
new figure palette just dropped
Also that you don't need a community -- why ask a friend for help with code or grammar or paper suggestions etc when you can just consume this product?
I can't believe this still needs to be said (and more loudly):
Trans rights are human rights.
