Breaking Bio

Anne Hilborn, PhD student at Virginia Tech, talks about her work studying the cheetahs of the Serengeti, including the not-so-glamourous aspects of the job, and then explains why she doesn't shy away from sharing her observations in graphic detail on Twitter.

For more information, links, and show notes, check out http://breakingbio.com

Dr. Alex Wild, curator of entomology at the University of Texas at Austin, talks with Morgan & Tom about tracking ant invasions with natural history collections, the rights & wrongs of copyright, and his new crowd-funding campaign, Insects Unlocked.

Find show notes at http://breakingbio.com

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Palaeontologist Trevor Valle and evolution vigilante @TakeThatDarwin talk to us about how they face off with evolution denialists, and why pop stars don't get carte blanche at Natural History Museums.

Find show notes and links at http://breakingbio.com

Dr. Adrian Smith, a post-doc at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, chats with us about his work on ant behaviour and chemical ecology, why he thinks scientists should be at least partly responsible for communicating their work, and about his own goals and strategies when it comes to scicomm.

Find show notes & links to Adrian's work at http://breakingbio.com

Dr. Yoel Stuart, a Post-doctoral Researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, joins us to discuss the evolutionary ramifications of invasive anoles on the islands of Florida. Turns out it's like the Olympic motto, Higher, Faster, Stronger, but with bigger toes. Yoel also tells us about some of his current work studying convergent evolution in British Colombian sticklebacks.

Dr. Dieter Lukas, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Cambridge, joins Heidi, Tom & Morgan to explain why a lot of mammals may not qualify for Parent of the Year. 

Find out more about Dieter's research, and find links to the papers we discuss at our website - http://breakingbio.com

This week, we learn all about flamingos from molecular biologist/palaeontologist Chris Torres of the University of Texas at Austin. Chris also explains how he solved a 150 year old mystery in a natural history museum, and why his house is covered in pink.

For more information, including links to the papers we discuss in this episode, check out the show notes at http://breakingbio.com.

This week we're joined by Dr. Nate Morehouse, an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies colour and how its used among insects and spiders. Nate explained some of his lab's work trying to understand how butterflies tell who are potential mates and who are wasted effort, as well as how jumping spiders taste the rainbow.

If you enjoyed this episode, Nate and his lab could use your help with their crowd-funding campaign to finance an expedition to the southwestern US in search of colourful jumping spiders - https://experiment.com/projects/why-are-some-jumping-spiders-so-colorful

This week we're talking to Louisiana State University PhD student Paige Brown Jarreau about her work trying to understand what makes science bloggers tick, or at least why they do what they do. We also discuss the role and future of crowd-funding scientific research.

Help support Paige's crowd-funding campaign - https://experiment.com/projects/something-is-wrong-on-the-internet-what-does-the-science-blogger-do?s=search

Find more information, including links to resources discussed in this episode, on our website - http://breakingbio.com

This week we've put together 4 shorter interviews with Columbia University Conservation Biology Master's Students who are all starting their academic careers studying some aspect of Mammal Conservation. From African traffic noise, to mouse gut microbes, and monkey poo to monkey conflicts, these students share their enthusiasm for their work.

Guests:

Kaggie Orrick - @KaggleRock - https://twitter.com/kagglerock

Erin Dimech - @ErinDimech - https://twitter.com/erindimech

Jessica Stitt - @JessMStitt - https://twitter.com/jessmstitt

Allison Roth

Columbia University Conservation Biology Student Blog - http://www.cuinthefield.wordpress.com/