Trinity College Dublin, Ecology and Evolution
There are a lot of how-tos on the internet (Thanks Buzzfeed!). You can life-hack yourself into an efficient machine, but before my first day at TCD I couldn’t seem to find a good article to put my nerves at ease. Once you’ve applied and been accepted to grad school it seems like it should all …
Continue reading “How to start a Ph.D (or how to try, at least)”
Earlier this month, postgraduate students of the Zoology department compete in the fourth annual ‘School of Natural Sciences Lightning Talks’ alongside students and staff from Botany and Geology. We all presented 120-second snapshots of our research and were judged by a panel. Judges included the Head of the School of Natural Sciences Professor Fraser Mitchell, …
Continue reading “Winning research – Zoology storms the Lightning Talks”
In 1872 Yellowstone National Park was established as the first National Park not only in the USA, but in the world. President Ulysses S. Grant signed into law the Yellowstone National Park Protection Act, and so the National Parks were born. Today 59 National Parks exist throughout the United States, covering approximately 51.9 million acres …
Continue reading “Trump and the future of “America’s best idea.””
When grading assessments as a demonstrator, I try really hard to give helpful, constructive feedback. It’s important for everyone to learn from their mistakes and develop both as scientific thinkers and as writers. However, there are a few mistakes that happen very often and really grind my gears. If you want to impress your grader …
Continue reading “Top 10 Minor Assignment Mistakes that Grind my Gears (+1 bonus)”
Most of us were glued to the hugely anticipated premier of Planet Earth 2 this Sunday. We watched lovesick sloths meander through the mangroves, giant dragons battle it out on Komodo, and penguins getting fecked off cliffs by monstrous waves. But if there was one scene that got us talking more than any other …
In 1993 Free Willy leapt onto cinema screens around the world. The story about a young boy who saves a killer whale from a run-down theme park was an instant hit for Warner Bros. However for Keiko, the whale who played Willy, the story did not have a Hollywood ending. While Willy jumped to freedom …
Continue reading “Freeing Willy: the $20 million failed experiment”
One of my favourite parts of working as a researcher during the summer (aside from quiet campuses with less students around) definitely has to be the “conference season”. Indeed, I don’t need to convince many people that conferences are one of the lively and exciting parts of doing science that rightly mix traveling, networking …
Making the most out of a post doc interview (Even when you don’t get/want the job!) So you’ve just finished your PhD and sent out a frantic flurry of post doc applications, amidst all of the excitement, you’re invited to interview; how should you proceed? Below are some of the things I learned from my …
Continue reading “Making the most out of a post doc interview”
Aoife Delaney (@Ifa_Dee) Supervisor: Jane Stout Title: Do principals of cross congruence apply in a naturally disturbed habitat? Cross congruence is a measure of the degree to which diversity (number or composition of species) of different taxa follow broadly similar patterns in response to environmental conditions. In situations where cross congruence is strong, measuring the diversity of …
Continue reading “School of Natural Science Postgraduate Symposium 2016: Part 2/3”
School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2016: Part 1/3 #zoobotpgsymp, not an infection transmitted by botflies, but the hashtag of the annual Botany-Zoology postgraduate symposium, hosted by the School of Natural Sciences, which took place on the 14th of April. This year’s symposium hosted 15 student speakers over 2 sessions of talks as well as two …
Continue reading “School of Natural Sciences Postgraduate Symposium 2016: Part 1/3”