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 example, standing variation in silk…
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. Some really remarkable specialization!
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 species. It's likely that a more general…
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 generalists and specialists, predators…
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 fair) within that genre. I've found…
Yeah the story linked there is absolutely nuts.
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 skills, from next-gen sequencing to fish…
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 get wowed by more "advanced" methods,…
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. When the incentive structure is towards…
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 you have any reference to that example?
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 equipment to study sharks is a way…
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, maybe USDA. If you study a game animal…
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 much money, but you will probably enjoy…
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 whose margins are quite slim to begin…
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/tongue-eating-l... What's weird is that…
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 will induce crickets to jump into…
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 home ranges, expensive permits, etc. A…
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/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... A…
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 kernel broke. I'd also argue that Excel…
"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 to be one to downplay Excel's ubiquity…
Thank you!
This reminds me of another thing I use when teaching: a perfect model of the entire world would be just as inscrutable of the world itself. I think having multiple layers of abstraction can be really useful and have…
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 example, standing variation in silk…
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. Some really remarkable specialization!
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 species. It's likely that a more general…
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 generalists and specialists, predators…
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 fair) within that genre. I've found…
Yeah the story linked there is absolutely nuts.
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 skills, from next-gen sequencing to fish…
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 get wowed by more "advanced" methods,…
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. When the incentive structure is towards…
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 you have any reference to that example?
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 equipment to study sharks is a way…
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, maybe USDA. If you study a game animal…
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 much money, but you will probably enjoy…
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 whose margins are quite slim to begin…
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/tongue-eating-l... What's weird is that…
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 will induce crickets to jump into…
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 home ranges, expensive permits, etc. A…
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/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal... A…
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 kernel broke. I'd also argue that Excel…
"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 to be one to downplay Excel's ubiquity…
Thank you!
This reminds me of another thing I use when teaching: a perfect model of the entire world would be just as inscrutable of the world itself. I think having multiple layers of abstraction can be really useful and have…