Science is based on observations that can be repeated, and so it’s a bit frustrating when you come across a published finding that fails to be repeatable.
Oct
07
Getting in Shape with Yeast: Fitness Assays
So a big part of my experiment is looking at how my different populations of yeast evolve. Specifically, we want to examine the differences between how populations evolve under different intensities of sexual selection. One useful way to measure their evolution is to get a sense of how their fitness changes over time. So what is fitness? The whole concept of fitness and what it means and how to define it is an interesting question, but for our purposes, it can be thought of a measure of how well an organism, or, in this case, a population can survive and reproduce.
Aug
14
Quick Update
I’m happy to report that our experimental system is up and running. By the time I get back to campus for the beginning of fall semester, we will have completed about two experimental cycles representing 60 yeast generations. I’m really excited to get back to the lab to start my fitness assays and the other assays I’ll use to assess extinction / speciation in my yeast (more on that later). In the meantime, enjoy some Darwin yeast art:
Aug
03
What I learned in Indiana
This post, I’d like to talk about a different aspect of doing scientific research: communicating science, listing to other people’s ideas, and interacting with fellow scientists.
Jun
22
Part of the motivation for writing this blog is to show how the research process unfolds—the successes along with the setbacks. This will be a brief post concerning the later. In theory, a researcher comes up with a plan of action that looks really good on paper, writes a grant for it, and then he/she is charged with actually carrying out the work. And it’s often at this step where things can get messy—often problems you would have never foreseen end up being major hurdles when you’re faced with carrying out research. It might take awhile before you get something the way you want it to be. And often the rate-limiting factors in this equation are totally and completely beyond your control. That’s a big part of the challenge of doing research.
Jun
18
This week, part of what we’ve done is to hash out the details of my experimental cycle. That’s really something excited about and, well, something I feel I should include on a blog about my research. Unfortunately, I’ve been a poor blogger these past few months, so I’m afraid some prerequisite reading is required if the cycle is to make kind of sense. So instead I’ll talk about the yeast lines I’ll be using, and what makes them special. Next post, I’ll get into the experimental cycle. But I feel it would be irresponsible of me to even begin such a discussion without giving the reader a feel for the basic life cycle of yeast.
May
31
Sexual Selection and Speciation in Frogs
This month has flown by. After studying for exams, I returned home for a couple weeks, where I studied for (and later took) the GRE. Not an unproductive May, except in the research department. Luckily, that will change starting this week. I’m back in the ‘Burg, and ready to get my project underway.
Apr
21
A Brief Introduction
Hello everyone! My name is Luke and I’m a junior at the College majoring in biology and (hopefully) minoring in mathematics. Over the course of these blog posts, it’s going to be really important for me to effectively communicate not just what I’m doing, but also why the questions I’m trying to answer are important and how answers to these questions contribute to a greater understanding of biology. To that end, I’ll try to include some background information, theory, or a summary of relevant literature, and then provide a brief update on what I’ve been up to in the lab in each blog post. My hope is that through these posts, you will be able to garner an understanding of the process by which scientists go about asking and testing interesting questions.