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Monthly Archives: July 2012
Be careful when you generalize
One of the things we learned at the Xenophobia meeting we went to a few months ago at Arizona State University, was how quick humans are to generalize. We can learn to be careful when we apply those generalizations to … Continue reading
A favorite meeting, small but open, posters, a single talk session
If someone invited me, back in the days I was working on wasps to a meeting that focused entirely on one species, perhaps my much-loved Polistes exclamans, I would have gone readily. That meeting might have covered behavior, ecology, phylogeny, … Continue reading
Posted in Microbes, Presentations and seminars, Scientific meetings
Tagged cell biology, collegial, Dictyostelium, Education, evolution, international, Madrid, plenary
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Why I like the separation of academic departments and colleges
One of the best things for creative scholarship is to feel you are in the company of others also striving for understanding and clarity. That company is often best if it is quiet, even dead. This is because we need … Continue reading
Organizing your research life
Melanie said she was always working, though she wasn’t always at the lab. How, if you are a scientist, can you just stop thinking about ideas? Of course you can’t. Some of the best ideas get written in those little … Continue reading
Posted in Daily routines, Managing an academic career
Tagged cheaters, EverNote, evolution, Experiment, Oxford, Ph.D., research planning, social evolution
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Lab meeting talks
She began with a couple of figures taken from someone else’s paper. They showed exactly what that other study measured. Sara Mitri told us what motivated that study. She then went on to clearly explain how her study would be … Continue reading
Learning in and from the Oxford colleges
Oxford is organized into colleges where, undergraduate education largely takes place. They have tutors who assign projects and meet individually or in small groups with students. Officially, students apply to colleges, not to the University of Oxford. University of Cambridge … Continue reading
Posted in Travel
Tagged Catholic Church, England, Harvard Square, Magdalen, Oxford, Samuel Johnson, tutor, United States, university, University of Cambridge, University of Oxford
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Inclusive fitness: theory and practice, Kavli Royal Society, Buckinghamshire, organized by Andy Gardner and Ashleigh Griffin
The first session has inclusive fitness luminaries Andy Gardner, Alan Grafen, David Queller, and Peter Taylor. We move on to Kevin Foster, Allen Moore, Hisashi Ohtsuki, and Geoff Wild. The second day has Ashleigh Griffin, me, Koos Boomsma, Ben Hatchwell, … Continue reading
Posted in Scientific meetings
Tagged collaboration, collegiality, data, exclusivity, kin selection, meetings, multilevel selection, Theory, William Hamilton, wine
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I hope you have some great lab parties
Neil Buttery and Boahemaa Adu-Oppong are moving on, so we had a lab party to celebrate the wonderful times we have had. It was a pot-luck at our home. We had a British chicken, spinach pakoras, guacamole, bread, cheese, yogurt, … Continue reading
Why I am abandoning balance in my life (for awhile)
Life is good. Happiness is high. I have a great balance to my days, beginning with gardening my small backyard farm. Work is a rich mix of writing, thinking, grant proposals, and mentoring students and reading their papers. We get … Continue reading
Posted in Managing an academic career
Tagged balance, big projects, books, grant proposals, Research, time, work
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Do you have your list of things you are interested in?
One of the things my creativity course emphasizes is paying attention to other people and what they are thinking about, or what they might think about various ideas. One person that is worth paying attention to is Cin-Ty Lee. He … Continue reading
Posted in Managing an academic career, New ideas
Tagged annual review, Biology, creativity, evolution, geology, ideas, important, interesting, problems, questions
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