Shaming myself by posting that video of us singing System of a Down has paid off – we tied for first! Ten more dollars goes to the Secular Student Alliance. Oh, what I’ll do for money. Er, I mean, charity. Um, just going to stop talking now.
Mark and Vanessa just went to get booze. I’m afraid.
This is post 27 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
Sorry, the karaoke took a bit of time, so I need a filler post before I talk more about my research. Here, rocks and trees that look like naughty bits!
(Thanks Michael)
This is post 26 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
Not sure why none of you suggested this one, but I thought it was the most hilarious pick. Keep in mind I’m embarrassing myself for charity. Enjoy the silly singing and complimentary boob jigglage.
Thanks Mark for the backup vocals.
(Sorry it’s not the full song…camera battery died right when it cut off =( )
This is post 25 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
As many of you don’t know…what with most of you just meeting me for the first time and all…I am currently an Undergrad in the school of Math at Purdue who is pursuing a degree in Math Education (because, frankly, it’s running away from me and I really want to catch it.)
What this means, for those of you who are not both studying at Purdue OR in a secondary education major, is that I am a Math student who is forced to take six relatively perfunctory education classes in addition to nearly ALL the math classes.
As a result of this particularly rigorous number of math classes (and a few awesome ones I’ve taken just for the lulz), I’ve been given a very good understanding of what is necessary to come into these classes and not leave the room crying every day. Let’s just say, I didn’t have a very excellent background in Math before I came to Purdue and started off on my path to become a math teacher (after, of course, a year and a half detour through the Chemical Engineering department. *sadface*).
Granted, my Calculus and Trig. skills are fantastic, my Algebra skills are awesome, and my Geometry skills are…well, not awesome but I made it through the class and, by the end, had totally made up for the terrible beginning.
“But…but Mark!” You say. “Isn’t that Math?”
Well…sort of.
Those things are the sum total of Math in the same way that taking baking soda and vinegar and mixing them together is chemistry.
Sure…these are things you do IN math and things that require math but what is missing is the theoretical aspect.
WHY do these things do what they do? Why does the Calculus do what it is supposed to?
This part of math is called “Analysis.” It mostly consists of “Proofs.” That is to say, the mathematic reasoning behind a given theorem.
The problem is that back in high school (and it seems most high schools nowadays) provide little to no actual analysis backing…specifically because of how state standards are set up. In order to continue functioning as a school, its students must score at certain levels on their standardized tests. As a result, teachers don’t always have the option of including logical reasoning and proof as a part of their curriculum.
This is really freaking sad.
To me, this strips Math of all of its science! There is no inquiry. It’s just become history with numbers.
This next semester, I will be teaching a class here at Purdue. MA 153 for those in the know and Algebra and Trigonometry I for those who aren’t.
I fully intend to sneak in as much logic and reasoning as I possibly can. My students will not just know WHAT they’re doing, but I’ll actually explain to them WHY they’re doing what they’re doing and WHERE it comes from so they can understand HOW to do it on a higher level than they might were they just to get equations and algorithms thrown at them.
Until later, this is Mark signing off!
This is post 24 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I actually study?
Since I’m trying to milk this for all its worth, let’s just start with my study organism: kangaroo rats!
Specifically I study banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis. They’re nocturnal rodents that live in the Southwestern US and Mexico. Their entire diet consists solely of seeds – they don’t even drink water. They’ve adapted to the desert life by being extremely efficient at conserving water. For example, their urine (when they rarely pee) is 24% salt – ours is 6%. How do they do it? Simply put, the path from their lungs to the outside air is long enough that the water vapor cools and condenses before it escapes the body – and they sniff it back up. This allows them to only lose 5% of the water we’d lose in respiration.
Oh, and they’re adorable:
That silver thing you see on it’s ear isn’t a staple of kangaroo rat fashion – they’re ear tags. Each contains a unique number, and we use them to keep track of each individual. We trap them during the summer and we’re able to tell if they’ve changed homes since last year, who they’re living with, how much they’ve grown, etc. We also take small ear snips so we have tissue to do DNA testing with. There’s really an endless about of studies we can do using this data, but so far most of the work has focuses on dispersal, inbreeding, and paternity.
Did I mention they were adorable?
Their main predators are coyotes (rarely), owls/hawks (commonly), and rattle snakes (frequently). I just because I was lucky to get the photo, here’s one in action (the krat was less lucky):
This is post 23 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
So what do I actually study?
Since I’m trying to milk this for all its worth, let’s just start with my study organism: kangaroo rats!Specifically I study banner-tailed kangaroo rats, Dipodomys spectabilis. They’re nocturnal rodents that live in the Southwestern US and Mexico. Their entire diet consists solely of seeds – they don’t even drink water. They’ve adapted to the desert life by being extremely efficient at conserving water. For example, their urine (when they rarely pee) is 24% salt – ours is 6%. How do they do it? Simply put, the path from their lungs to the outside air is long enough that the water vapor cools and condenses before it escapes the body – and they sniff it back up. This allows them to only lose 5% of the water we’d lose in respiration.
Oh, and they’re adorable:That silver thing you see on it’s ear isn’t a staple of kangaroo rat fashion – they’re ear tags. Each contains a unique number, and we use them to keep track of each individual. We trap them during the summer and we’re able to tell if they’ve changed homes since last year, who they’re living with, how much they’ve grown, etc. We also take small ear snips so we have tissue to do DNA testing with. There’s really an endless about of studies we can do using this data, but so far most of the work has focuses on dispersal, inbreeding, and paternity.
Did I mention they were adorable?Their main predators are coyotes (rarely), owls/hawks (commonly), and rattle snakes (frequently). I just because I was lucky to get the photo, here’s one in action (the krat was less lucky):This is post 23 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
If you want to read some news articles about my lab’s research, here are some links:
Scientists are learning more about big birds from feathers
Study shows animal mating choices more complex than once thought
Sex lives of wild fish: genetic techniques provide new insights
Random picks better than complicated process in gene indentification
DNA from feathers tells tale of eagle fidelity
Road losses add up, taxing amphibians and other animals
Study rules out inbreeding as cause of amphibian deformities
Genetically modified fish could damage ecology
Speaking of our amphibian road kill project…to give you an idea of how bad it gets, here’s the carnage on a road in West Lafayette after it rains:
The town literally has sweepers that come through and remove all of the frog bodies. Thousands die after a single rainfall.
This is why road planners need to talk to biologists before building a major road that bisects a marsh.
This is post 22 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
If you want to read some news articles about my lab’s research, here are some links:
Scientists are learning more about big birds from feathers
Study shows animal mating choices more complex than once thought
Sex lives of wild fish: genetic techniques provide new insights
Random picks better than complicated process in gene indentification
DNA from feathers tells tale of eagle fidelity
Road losses add up, taxing amphibians and other animals
Study rules out inbreeding as cause of amphibian deformities
Genetically modified fish could damage ecology
Speaking of our amphibian road kill project…to give you an idea of how bad it gets, here’s the carnage on a road in West Lafayette after it rains:The town literally has sweepers that come through and remove all of the frog bodies. Thousands die after a single rainfall.
This is why road planners need to talk to biologists before building a major road that bisects a marsh.
This is post 22 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
Blogathon is going to have a new challenge: Videotape yourself singing karaoke. Because I’m on a caffeine high and have the sudden urge to embarrass myself, I’m going to let you guys suggest what I should sing.
Key word: suggest. If you all vote for some horrible song to annoy me, I have veto power =P
I have Rock Band 2 for Wii, which has a song list here. Here are additional songs I’ve downloaded:
All The Small Things – Blink 182
Buddy Holly – Weezer
Call Me When You’re Sober – Evanescence
Dirty Little Secret – All American Rejects
Don’t Speak – No Doubt
Hella Good – No Doubt
Hysteria – Muse
Just a Girl – No Doubt
More Than A Feeling – Boston
My Sharona – The Knack
Space Man – The Killers
Take Me Out – Franz Ferdinand
The Kill – 30 Seconds to Mars
This Ain’t a Scene It’s an Arms Race – Fall Out Boy
So, any requests?
*I should have made this more clear: Your only choices are the Rock Band songs. Sorry guys. I will turn off the game’s vocals, though.
This is post 21 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
I figured I’ve been blogging long enough with vague references to lab work and research and biology conferences that I should actually tell you guys what my research is. I’m not going to go super in depth for two reasons: one, if you’re not a biologist, you probably wouldn’t know what the heck I was talking about, and two, we’re still trying to publish my work, so I don’t want to give it all away before it’s officially out there.
So before I get into specifics, let me give you a little background information about what I do.
My official job title is not “Undergraduate Slave Technician” but a Forestry & Natural Resources Signature Area Fellow in Ecological Genetics (phew, try saying that three times fast). That’s really just a fancy way of saying I get paid slightly more because FNR had a special fund for smarty pants undergraduates doing more than one year of lab work. I’m actually a student of the Biology Department, which is in the College of Science, while FNR is part of the College of Agriculture. The only difference? Ag gets better funding at Purdue. Genetics is genetics no matter what department you’re in.
The laboratory I work in is pretty diverse as far as projects go. Most of our research is on ecological genetics and using genetics to answer questions about conservation. While a lot of labs have only one or two study organisms, we basically have everything. Birds (a ton of species from Hispanola, Eastern Imperial Eagles from Kazakhstan), amphibians (from Tiger Salamanders to whatever we find squished on the road), fish (Lake Sturgeon, my favorite sexually ambiguous fish), and mammals (hurray for Kangaroo Rats!). And our actual research is just as diverse: investigating long term population histories, genetic diversity and the effects of human structures, noninvasive ways to monitor population densities, discovering the genetic mechanisms for sex determination, the genetic basis for mate choice, dispersal…we’ve basically done it all.
When I started research, I have to admit that I really didn’t see the point of conservation projects. I didn’t know much about the fragile nature of ecosystems or why we need to protect our wealth of resources on earth, even at the very least for selfish reasons. After working in the lab for a while, I have a new appreciation for conservation. Personally, it’s not the kind of research I want to be doing – I’m still a bit of a cynic about conservation, and I’m not passionate enough to devote my life to it. My cynicism doesn’t make my the best spokeswoman for it, either. But regardless, I do appreciate the work done much more than I did before, and I’m glad I got what’s going to be a diverse lab experience before I go devoting my life to human genetics or something (or who knows what).
This is post 20 of 49 of Blogathon. Pledge a donation to the Secular Student Alliance here.
