December 2013
Christmas Animals
Would there be a Christmas without animals? It seems like a silly question but think about it; so many of our holiday traditions involve animals in some way. There are the obvious participants; the poultry, pigs, lambs and, in some countries, fish which will be the highlights of millions of Christmas dinners. Indeed, the Christmas […]
Seminar series: David Angeler, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
Part of our series of posts by final-year undergraduate students for their Research Comprehension module. Students write blogs inspired by guest lecturers in our Evolutionary Biology and Ecology seminar series in the School of Natural Sciences. This week, views from Somantha Killion-Connolly and Joe Bliss on David Angeler's seminar, Ecological complexity: a torture or nurture for […]
Good, Better, Best
Many aspects of human nature seem to frustrate our ideal of a modern society. This is especially true of our morality. We seem to have evolved a brain with two systems relevant to moral behaviour. The first, more ancient component is automatic, judging things as disgusting or inherently wrong very quickly; the second is our […]
Search and rescue or seek and destroy?
Curing cancer, delivering carbon free energy and rescuing people trapped after earthquakes are noble pursuits. In a time where fundamental research is under pressure to deliver, lofty goals like this are glibly trotted out in grant applications to justify project funding, and then again in press releases once the work is done to justify the […]
Seminar series; James McInerney, NUI Maynooth
Part of our series of posts by final-year undergraduate students for their Research Comprehension module. Students write blogs inspired by guest lecturers in our Evolutionary Biology and Ecology seminar series in the School of Natural Sciences. This week; views from Dermot McMorrough and Maura Judge on James McInerney's seminar, The hybrid nature of eukaryotes rejects the three-domains hypothesis of life […]
People are idiots
Apologies in advance for this perhaps unconstructive rant! But I’ve found the process cathartic after spending my whole holiday worrying that someone nearby was going to get kicked, crushed or eaten through their own stupidity! For my summer holiday this year I spent a week in Yellowstone National Park in the USA. It was awesome […]
Science X-Factor
What is consciousness? Why do we live? Why did the dinosaurs die out? Are tenrecs cannibals? Can we control our dreams? Do you like cake?! These are just some of the burning questions which I had the pleasure and challenge of trying to answer while taking part in I’m a scientist, get me out of […]
Seminar series; Britt Koskella, University of Exeter
The first set of our weekly Wednesday posts by final-year undergraduate students as part of their Research Comprehension module. Students write blogs inspired by guest lecturers in our Evolutionary Biology and Ecology seminar series in the School of Natural Sciences. This week; views from Sam Preston and Emma Dunne on Britt Koskella's seminar, Bacteria-phage interactions within their long-lived […]
Join us!
It’s that time of year again at EcoEvo@TCD where we start looking for people to apply for Irish Research Council fellowships to come and join us as postdocs or PhD students. These awards are open to anyone, regardless of nationality. Details can be found here(PhD funding) and here (postdoc funding). But why would you want to […]