As seems to always be the case, the end of the fall semester brings an especially hectic schedule. Along with my usual teaching duties, class demands, and attempts to delve into my
summer research data, I am deluged with grant application deadlines, demands to get papers graded and returned, grades finalized for my students, and, of course, holiday shopping. It's crazy.
1) I got in my application for two major fellowships funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Department of Energy (DOE). My chances may be improved due to the recent funding the Obama administration has provided for the sciences (the DOE fellowship was started this year).
2) My advisor, Dr. Rebecca Safran, is writing a collaborative grant with some other professors here at the University of Colorado to fund a worldwide survey
of barn swallow morphology. She's already gotten in touch with people from Estonia, Denmark, Japan, Mongolia, Israel, England, Turkey, and Russia (a Russian barn swallow is shown at right, photo sent by our contact near Lake Baikal). The grant will hopefully fund sampling of variation in feather color, genetics, song,and feather isotopes from across the range of barn swallows! (You can use the ratio of various types of atoms with extra neutrons [isotopes of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen] to determine where a bird grew it's feathers [where it migrates to in the winter]).
of barn swallow morphology. She's already gotten in touch with people from Estonia, Denmark, Japan, Mongolia, Israel, England, Turkey, and Russia (a Russian barn swallow is shown at right, photo sent by our contact near Lake Baikal). The grant will hopefully fund sampling of variation in feather color, genetics, song,and feather isotopes from across the range of barn swallows! (You can use the ratio of various types of atoms with extra neutrons [isotopes of nitrogen, carbon, and hydrogen] to determine where a bird grew it's feathers [where it migrates to in the winter]). 3) I will be studying for my preliminary exam over the break. On February 17th I will meet for 3 hours with my committee of three professors and my advisor, during which time they can ask me any question about biology even slightly related to my study area. (I cringe just thinking about it.)
4) Shortly after the exam, an undergraduate assistant in our lab will travel with me to Kansas so we can both learn how to make taxidermic bird mounts for our research projects. I feel this is particularly fitting, as a guy from Alabama, to learn the art of taxidermy. As it turns out, this is a surprisingly uncommon skill, since most people these days prepare bird skins that they keep in museum drawers, rather than a lifelike mount for use in behavioral studies.
So that's what I'm doing currently. If you have any questions about the goings on in my lab or care to comment about anything, please do so.
Cool link of the day: Parasitic Wasp Uses Virus to Weaken Caterpillar's Immune System
So that's what I'm doing currently. If you have any questions about the goings on in my lab or care to comment about anything, please do so.
Cool link of the day: Parasitic Wasp Uses Virus to Weaken Caterpillar's Immune System
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