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Tuesday, July 5, 2022
My learning curve with the statistical software R has been a long one, but one of the steepest and most exciting times was learning how to write functions and loops. Suddenly I could do all kinds of things that used to seem impossible. Since then, I’ve learned to avoid for loops whenever possible. Why?... More
My guest post for my university’s School of Graduate Studies blog is up! (You can read it here.) The inspiration was a new radio podcast that we have in the works on research here at Queen’s – scientific and otherwise. I’ve been working on the concept with Vee, an English PhD, and Savita, an undergraduate... More
There’s no question that broadly speaking, big brains are smart. Take humans, for instance: our brains weigh in at about 3 pounds on average, nearly four times the size of the brains of chimpanzees (whose brains weigh in at less than a pound apiece). What’s less clear is why. There are a number of... More
My article on the behavioural economics of grades is out, and it’s the cover story this month in University Affairs magazine! I had a blast doing interviews for this story. I tried to pick profs with a reputation for being great teachers in classes that are popular despite being tough. I learned a ton talking... More
I finally had a chance to watch Steven Pinker’s excellent lecture on science communication this weekend. Pinker, a psychologist, linguist and top-notch writer, argues that psychology can help us tune up our writing and become better communicators. His first point is that cognitive psychology points to the model that we should be aiming for:... More
The Shark Worlds came to Kingston last month – not a fish thing, but rather the world championships for the Shark class of sailboat. My friend Martin was competing (his boat name? Cloaca. Martin is a biologist who takes taxonomic accuracy seriously). As he was recounting some of his adventures, he mentioned that he had done quite... More
The newspapers have been abuzz lately about a controversial book: Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, by Amy Chua, is a memoir on the rewards and perils of stereotypically strict Asian-American parenting. This week I asked students in my 4th-year biology class to tell me about their earliest memory of being fascinated with something biological,... More
I’m teaching again this semester, this time in Bob Montgomerie’s fourth-year course on the history and philosophy of biology. My job is to moderate group discussions and seminars in the tutorials. It will be a lot of work, since tutorials happen every week, but I’m excited at the prospect of using our debate as fuel for... More
Download a pdf of slides from the tutorials here. From September 1,... More
Popular science writing style Olivia Judson’s blog for the New York Times is an excellent example of the sharp-but-accurate style you should aim for, although the posts are much shorter and don’t into as much detail as you will for the assignment. Here are a couple of quick reads for inspiration: An Evolve-By Date... More
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