The wonderful Encyclopedia of Life just added Dr. Erick Mata, from the National Biodiversity Institute of Costa Rica, as its executive director! So we have a new connection between Costa Rican ecological science – which is already the most awesome of any tropical country I’ve visited or heard of – and the world’s most ambitious online collection of biological information. Awesome!
Its kind of like evolution
but not really. Conway’s Game of Life is pretty fun to play with, though. It is a classic cellular automaton of white and black squares whose pattern is changed every ‘generation’ by a simple set of rules. Amazingly similar to evolution in the strange and wonderful changes that emerge!
In fact, according to the wiki on the topic, the entire mathematical field of research about cellular automaton models was sparked by the invention of this game. Does that mean that those ecological models where communities are modeled in a similar way (little colored squares, with competition occurring between neighbours and dispersal between cells, etc) are descendants of this game?
Words from the Wise
Being a grad student is hard work. It seems to me that the greatest challenge isn’t always the science, but maintaining motivation and direction despite working more or less independently for a long time. These days there’s a cottage industry of writers who are out to motivate and inspire you — some with a particular focus on academics. Still, I don’t think I’ve ever encountered a book which contains as high a concentration of quality advice as these (short, free, online) lists:
Some Modest Advice for Graduate Students is something I hope most graduate students in any discipline read. Our zoology grad students included a link to it in the orientation information for new students!
The Art of Mediocrity by Paul Keddy has been on a wall near my desk for a long time. And I still find lots of good reminders in this punchy 12-item list. My favourite right now is #4) Avoid familiarity with other living creatures.
A small green gesture
I’ve just added a “Carbon Neutral” sticker to our blog’s sidebar. Did you know that Internet use produces a measurable carbon footprint via the operation of large mainframe computers? While its probably premature to expect that we will be getting the kind of traffic that actually generates a problem, the gesture costs nothing and at the very least raises awareness.
Is YOUR blog carbon neutral?
Farewell Jiichiro!
This blog begins with an ending: recently we bid farewell to our visiting PostDoc Jiichiro Yoshimoto. Jiichiro was visiting us to work on the mite system, and so he spent a great deal of time moving around chunks of moss and staring into microscopes identifying mites. He and I (Andrew) also spent a few hours a week identifying beetles in the Beaty Biodiversity Museum. We already miss Jiichiro’s quiet, cheerful presence around our lab.
A gathering at Diane’s house to celebrate Jiichiro’s contribution was the occasion for a rare lab photograph. It was a pretty complete photograph when it was taken — but its already out of date! With the beginning of a new semester new people have joined our lab. More news about (and from!) them soon!