Viewing profile — mc_maurer

There's also typically a ton of standing genetic variation that is relatively fitness-neutral, but can then lead to more rapid or directional evolution if conditions change. For ex…

You should read up on manipulative parasites too! Things like wasp larvae developing inside an insect and changing its behavior through chemical manipulation of neural pathways. So…

Ultimately, it's probably due to the rate of encounter with this species and the evolution of the pheromone towards the most consistent and intense response from that particular sp…

Couple things here: First, ecosystems don't work on this concept of "balance" or "problems to fix". There are ecological niches that are exploited by a species or not. We have both…

You ever heard of Every Noise at Once? You can search for an artist, see the genres they belong to, and then look for artists nearby in 2D musical space (oversimplified a bit to be…

Yeah the story linked there is absolutely nuts.

https://www.kinco.com/5210-l I wear these walking the dog down to -20F or so. They're warm enough with the tops flipped up, and you can quickly flip them down for a little dexterit…

A big thing I would add is to strongly consider how much you'll be moving, especially when it comes to footwear. Boots that are rated to -40 during light activity can leave you wit…

I'd also add that the best scientists I know have, for the duration of their careers, put the question first and pursued methods to fit. I know folks who have the wildest set of sk…

Ecology PhD turned data scientist, I was looking to respond and you summed up my thoughts really well! I will add that funding can complicate things a bit, funding sources often ge…

Sneaking some very devious stuff into a friend's .Rprofile when they're not looking

I'd even argue that the declining rate of scientific advancement is due to the academic track moving towards the same short-term thinking that plagues parts of the private sector. …

If only it worked on Databricks serverless SQL warehouses...

The term for parasitoids that attack other parasitoids is a "hyperparasitoid". I did my PhD on parasitoids that attack aphids, but I've never heard of a hyper-hyperparasitoid, do y…

I think some of it is self-selection, but I also think some of it is a filtering effect based on the much more competitive and stressful atmosphere. Getting funding and permits and…

It comes down to a lot of factors, but a big one is the diversity of funding sources. If you study a species that doesn't have broad appeal, you're probably looking at NSF funding,…

That's an interesting question- I think it would be challenging in some respects, which would likely differ during and after school. During a PhD program, you're not gonna make muc…

There's an inherent cost to foraging, so a high-quality food item that requires little effort is a much greater net energy benefit. When we're talking about an endangered species w…

Ok one more, I can't help myself. This one isn't really a manipulative parasite, but there is an isopod that will eat a fish's tongue: https://oceanconservancy.org/blog/2022/04/28/…

Plenty of variability within that subset though! Lots of stereotypes based on your study system lol

Another one of my favorite papers of all time: https://www.jstor.org/stable/29779588 There's a nematomorph parasite that infects crickets, and part of its life cycle is aquatic. It…

It's a pretty widely known thing that studying charismatic megafauna gets you lots of money. However, they're also generally WAY more of a pain to study. Fewer individuals, larger …

I did my PhD studying manipulative parasites and in general, impacts of parasites/parasitoids on host behavior. This is my absolute favorite example: https://journals.plos.org/plos…

I think "for businesses" is probably the caveat here. It feels like a trope to mention it at this point, but I think the world would suffer greater consequences if, say, the Linux …

"the world’s most important piece of software" "there’s simply no more powerful piece of software on the planet for turning a mess of numbers into answers and sense" I never want t…