Phodopic Science: DDIG and the Government Shutdown

Friday, October 4, 2013

DDIG and the Government Shutdown

I'm currently writing my DDIG (Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant) which will be submitted to NSF. It's going pretty slowly, but hopefully I'll have something worthwhile here shortly. Fortunately for me, the House Republicans were kind enough to shut the government down and give me a couple extra days to write. Thanks John Boehner! Thanks Ted Cruz! You guys are the best!

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About my research

I'm trying to understand general patterns of mammalian speciation. The way I do this is by looking at the problems that occur in mammal hybrids. One common problem is that mammal hybrids often exhibit really wonky patterns of growth. For example, Lions are around 550lbs and Tigers are around 600lbs, but Ligers weigh nearly 900lbs - almost twice as big as either parent. What is more interesting is that Tigons only weigh around 450lbs, much smaller than either parent (remember that a Lion female x Tiger male = Tigon, while a Tiger female x Lion male = Liger). This is crazy because Ligers and Tigons each get about half their DNA from a lion and half from a tiger, so the main question is why is there 450lbs difference in weight between them? While lions and tigers are awesome, I'm trying to understand the genetics that cause these wonky growth patterns using a pair of species that don't routinely eat people: dwarf hamsters. This blog is a sort of research notebook (inspired by none other than Rosie Redfield) that includes my experiments, plans and thoughts on why mammals have such abnormally sized hybrids.

Friday, October 4, 2013

DDIG and the Government Shutdown

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