What is ecology? What is evolution? Seems like a really simple question from an ecology or evolution perspective, until you bring a different field into the mix, e.g., transposon/genome biology. When we started the TE (formerly known as genome) ecology group, sometimes in March 2010, I had no idea we would end here, with a publication in a journal with a higher impact factor than Ecology.
Our starting point for this publication was the appeal of using ecological theory to explore the dynamics of transposable elements in the genome.
As you probably noticed, we do lots of interdisciplinary research in this lab. A group of undergraduate students approached this question for a 4th year class, and made a website that approaches interdisciplinary research from, you guessed it, several different perspectives. One of the activities they did was interviewing a wide range of people with this question in mind. Two of those persons where Ingrid and myself. And I will leave it up to you to find those, embarrassing ?
Collaboration is on my mind these days. Ingrid pointed out this article to me, about, among other things, the potential pitfalls of group work. The author, Susan Cain frames this in the presence or importance of introverts, and how negating introverts has a negative effect on the performance of group work. Choice quote from the interview:
“Forty years of research shows that brainstorming in groups is a terrible way to produce creative ideas.
Very occasionally, I will brave North American culture and go see a movie on a ridiculously big screen with a ridiculously big bag of popcorn. Last December, a friend convinced me to not only go see Avatar on the big screen, but to watch it in 3-D with her. I was blown away. Though I find the current 3-D craze to be, well, crazy, I have to admit that it brought a certain enchantment to the fantasy planet Pandora.
In March 2009, the Women’s Studies undergraduate program (among others) was cut at Guelph. I wasn’t involved in the issue myself, but knew a few people who rallied against this decision. They cited it as ironic evidence that feminism is far from being a finished movement. At the time, I only saw a superficial link between the Women’s Studies program cut and feminism; I didn’t know what feminism really was.
“The federal government wants to put a price tag on polar bears,” begins this recent Globe and Mail article. It goes on to explain that Environment Canada wants to determine the socio-economic value of the iconic arctic species. This includes things like the bear’s consumptive value, cultural value, scientific value, educational value, aesthetic value, existence value, and so on. How much does each “additional unit of polar bear” or each “additional hectare of habitat” bring to the nation?