The Naked Darwin

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Christina Baer, a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, talks about how herbivore insects can shape the evolution of plant species. Check it out!

Insect herbivores and the drivers of plant speciation This is a guest post by Christina Baer, a Ph.D. candidate in Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Fifty-two years ago, two biologists published a huge paper…

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The complex ties between Caribbean birds and their bloody parasites Malaria is not a “privilege” of humans. Though mostly known for its devastating impacts on people worldwide, bird populations have also suffered the consequences of infections by this g…

First Ilkka Hanski and now Bob Paine. This is a sad year for ecologists.

"Back in 1963, Paine began prying ochre starfish off a rocky beach in Washington and hurling them into the sea. After a year, the mussels that the starfish would normally have eaten had overrun the beach, turning a wonderland of limpets, anemones, and barnacles into a monoculture of black gaping shells.

The experiment was ground-breaking. It showed that not all species are equal, and that some—like the starfish—are secret lynchpins of the natural world. Their absence can ripple outwards, triggering the rise and fall of connected species and can even reshape the landscape."

RIP Bob Paine, A Keystone Among Ecologists You may not know his name, but you almost certainly know the ideas that he pioneered.

Pigeons: underrated and underused?

Pigeons are gross. They're also wildly underrated. This video will change the way you look at pigeons. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO Sources: Superdove: How the Pigeon took Manhattan... and t...

"Chubbyness", "chunkyness", "jumpy little fella", "toothpick-legged round-ish potato": all useful adjectives when it comes to getting that bird ID right.

How To Identify Birds Before you judge a bird by its color, use these eight clues to guide you.

Workshop on Hierarchical Modeling for Ecologists

"The III Porto Alegre Workshop on Hierarchical Modeling for Ecologists will take place October 9-15, in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. This is the third edition of an annual event that picks a different modeling topic every year. In 2016, we will focus on site-occupancy and species distribution models."

For more information, please visit: http://ferrazlab.org/workshops/

Workshops Information about upcoming and past workshops.

Some electrifying way of communication!!

http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/electric-fish.aspx

Fish that have their own fish finders | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis The more than 200 species in the family Mormyridae communicate with one another in a way completely alien to our species: by means of electric discharges generated by an organ in their tails.

Melanism is a quite well known phenotype, but have you ever heard of fibromelanosis? This is an extremely rare phenotype in which even internal tissues receive deposits of melamine. The mechanisms of fibromelanosis lie on gene duplication and an atypical migration of melanocyte precursors during embryonic development.

Inside the Goth Chicken: Black Bones, Black Meat & a Black Heart - Facts So Romantic - Nautilus In the historical novel The Black Tulip, written by Alexandre Dumas, an honest and decent Dutch tulip fancier is nearly brought to…

Get to know Hadley Wickham the man behind the 'R'evolution on data manipulation and plotting.

“One of the attributes that has made me successful,” he says, “is that I am exquisitely sensitive to frustration.”

http://priceonomics.com/hadley-wickham-the-man-who-revolutionized-r/

Hadley Wickham, the Man Who Revolutionized R The data science tools created by Hadley Wickham have been downloaded millions of times and changed data visualization.

"[...] enough with the warm and fuzzy personification of nature! Dress her in a suit and toss her a calculator because deals are going down in the jungle."

http://nautil.us/issue/10/mergers--acquisitions/top-5-real-wolves-of-wall-street

Top 5 Real Wolves of Wall Street - Issue 10: Mergers & Acquisitions - Nautilus Hey Disney, enough with the warm and fuzzy personification of nature! Dress her in a suit and toss her a calculator because deals…

Alert for young conservation biologists: Future for Nature Award is receiving applications!

http://futurefornature.org/?page_id=571

Award application | Future for Nature New application round The new application round for the 2016 Future for Nature Award  is now open! You can send in your application form until 15th September 2015. Please don’t forget to check the criteria on this website before submitting. You will find the application form here. Please send it to…

"Science takes imagination". Looking for some inspiration? Listen to Richard Feynman Speak! http://www.ted.com/talks/richard_feynman

Physics is fun to imagine In this archival footage from BBC TV, celebrated physicist Richard Feynman explains what fire, magnets, rubber bands (and more) are like at the scale of the jiggling atoms they're made of. This accessible, enchanting conversation in physics reveals a teeming nano-world that's just plain fun to imagi…