JOURNAL CLUB
Fall 2019
. . . Friday, September 13. Zach Hancock will lead a discussion on the origins of genome complexity. The paper argues that the transition in genome complexity from prokaryotes to eukaryotes emerged passively by nonadaptive processes. Should make for a fun discussion. We will meet on Friday at 4 PM at O’Bannon’s. [Lynch & Conery]
Also, here is a link to a Google sign-up sheet for the rest of the semester. There are a limited number of spots so first come first serve.
. . . Friday, September 6. For this week’s journal club, Steven Bovio will lead a discussion on widespread biases in EEB. The attached paper addresses geographic, taxonomic, and citation biases in publications between temperate and tropical systems. Steven will focus most on what these biases mean, how they influence our understanding of the natural world, and what the community can do moving forward. We will meet on Friday at 4PM at O’Bannon’s in Northgate. Hope to see everyone there! [Culumber et al 2019 ]
. . . Friday, August 30. Howdy EEB community! Hope everyone’s first week back to school is going well. We are going to start our behavior, ecology, and evolution reading (BEER) group back up again this Friday at 4:00 PM at O’Bannon’s on Northgate. The BEER group is a graduate student-run social journal club that meets each week. In the past, we typically have one student sign up for a week of the semester to facilitate a discussion on a paper of their choosing. There is no particular theme other than it must be related to EEB. The BEER group is open to anyone and faculty members are highly encouraged to attend. Though the journal club name and location are beer-related, there is absolutely no pressure to imbibe.
I know many of the first year EEB students have a course that begins at 5 PM on Friday, so this first week will be purely a social and welcome back gathering. We’ll start our first paper discussion the following week. Hope to see everyone there! – Steven Bovio
Spring 2019
… Friday, April 26. No journal club this week. Next week will be our last one of the semester. No one has signed up, so if you care to present anything send it my way. Otherwise, I’ll probably lead the discussion.
… Friday, April 19. After excellent talks at EIS and great food and camaraderie at the Annual Crawfish Boil, we’ll start our EEB journal club back up. This week, Amanda Beckman will discuss an article examining how extra pair mating influences sexual selection in white-throated sparrows. Hope to see everyone at O’Bannon’s on Friday at 4PM. [Grunst et al 2019]
… Friday, April 12. No journal club, Annual EEB/ABS Crawfish Boil.
… Friday, April 5. No journal club, EIS.
… Friday, Mar 29. This week David Saenz will lead our discussion on how bioluminescent courtship signals drive phenotypic evolution in fireflies. As usual, we will meet at O’Bannon’s at 4pm this Friday. Hope to see everyone there! [Hensley et al 2018]
… Friday, Mar 22. This week, Dan Powell will be discussing allele-specific expression and the role it plays in overcoming intergenomic gene expression interaction conflicts hybrids. As usual, hope to see everyone at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Matos et al 2019]
… Friday, Mar 15. No journal club, Spring Break.
… Friday, Mar 8. This week for journal club Kevin Bredemeyer will lead our discussion on the 3D structure of chromosomes and how they interact. As usual, we will meet at O’Bannon’s on Friday at 4pm. [Maass et al 2018]
… Friday, Mar 1. This week Erin Nguyen will discuss a cool paper on how sentinel species can help flock species to expand their niche by reducing predation. As usual, we will meet at 4pm on Friday at O’Bannons. Hope to see everyone there. [Martinez et al 2018]
… Friday, Feb 22. For journal club this week, Alyson Brokaw will be leading our discussion on women’s representation in STEM. (See two articles.) Hope to see everyone at O”Bannon’s at 4pm on Friday. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to attend. [Leslie et al 2015] [Ceci and Williams 2010]
… Friday, Feb 15. For our behavior, ecology, and evolution reading group this week, Zach Steffensmeier will be leading our discussion on fish introgression occurring in our own backyard! Hope to see everyone at O’Bannon’s at 4pm this Friday. [Get article here]
… Friday, Feb 1. This week we will resume our Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution Reading (BEER) group on Friday at 4PM at O’Bannon’s on Northgate. We will meet at this time and place weekly.
For those that haven’t had the opportunity to attend, the BEER group consists of students and faculty members affiliated with EEB that meet once a week for a casual journal club. Each week, one student is responsible for picking and presenting a paper of their choosing. There is no particular theme to this journal club or to what papers can be chosen other than it must be EEB related. I will present the first paper on one of my favorite topics: speciation. Grab the article here.
This is a great opportunity to get to know other EEB members in a semi-academic/social environment. Hope to see everyone there!
… Friday, Jan 25. From Steven Bovio – This week we will resume our Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution Reading (BEER) group on Friday at 4PM at O’Bannon’s on Northgate. We will meet at this time and place weekly.
For those who haven’t had the opportunity to attend, the BEER group consists of students and faculty members affiliated with EEB. We meet once a week for a casual journal club. Each week, one student is responsible for picking and presenting a paper. There is no particular theme to this journal club or paper topics that can be chosen other than it must be EEB-related. I will present the first paper on one of my favorite topics – speciation. Find the article here.
This is a great opportunity to get to know other EEB members in a semi-academic/social environment. Hope to see everyone there!
Fall 2018
… Friday, Dec 7. Join us for our last EEB journal club of the semester. We’ll be discussing promoting transparency in science, how scientists can communicate with each other in such a way that the progress of science is never impeded by the inability to interpret methods/results, access archived data/code, etc. Also, how how scientists can communicate with the general public more effectively as well. We’ll meet on Friday at O’Bannon’s at 4 pm. See you there! [Parker et al 2016]
… Friday, Nov 30. This week we will be discussing how genomic data can help uncover signatures of hybridization and speciation. Hannah Justen will be leading our discussion. Hope to see you Friday at 4:00 at O’Bannon’s. [Hvala et al 2018]
… Friday, Nov 23. No journal club this week. University holiday.
… Friday, Nov 16. This week David Saenz will be leading our EEB journal club discussion. We will be covering the unusual ways by which fish sense the world. You may find the results electrifying. Please find paper attached. O’Bannon’s at 4 pm. See you there! [Gottwald et al 2018]
… Friday, Nov 9. Please join us for an ethical/scientific debate at this week’s Behavior, Ecology, and Evolution Reading (BEER) group led by Emma Lehmberg. Attached are papers on two different viewpoints: fish don’t feel pain (as we do; Rose et al) vs. fish have consciousness and experience pain (Braithwaite). For the Rose et al. paper, reading the first 7 pages is enough to understand that side of the debate and where their main objections come from. See you at O’Bannon’s on Friday.
… Friday, Nov 2. Sarah Ruckman will lead this week’s discussion of the genomics of eye coloration in huskies. [Deane Coe et al 2018]
… Friday, Oct 26. Amanda Beckman will lead this week’s discussion of whether social costs are important for maintaining honest signals. ion. Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Webster et al 2018]
… Friday, Oct 19. Luke Bower will lead this week’s discussion of how adaptive landscapes influence convergent evolution in squirrels. Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Zelditch et al 2017]
… Friday, Oct 12. Jamie Alfieri will lead this week’s discussion on how genomic data can be used to identify loci underlying adaptive variation. For those who are deterred by genomics, we should expect to see more ecology based papers in the coming weeks. Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Phifer-Rixey et al 2018]
… Friday, Oct 5. Zach Hancock will lead a discussion on codon biases and their evolutionary implications. Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Galtier et al 2018]
… Friday, Sept 28. This week Gaston Jofre will be presenting an interesting article on how socially mediated changes in gene expression can facilitate adaptive radiations. Please join us for the discussion at O’Bannon’s at 4PM. [Pascoal et al 2018]
… Friday, Sept 14. This week Alyson Brokaw will be leading our discussion on the evolution of migration in ungulates. Hope to see everyone at O’Bannon’s at 4 pm. [Jesmer et al 2018]
… Friday, Sept 7. This Friday at 4 pm we will meet at O’Bannon’s on Northgate to host our first journal club of the semester. At BEER (behavior, ecology, and evolution reading), students and faculty affiliated with the EEB program come together to review papers in the field of EEB. This is a great opportunity to interact with other members of the program and learn about cool science in fields that may or may not be related to your own.
This week Stephen Bovio will lead the first discussion. I chose this paper because identifying adaptations with genomic approaches is cool. Also, it’s a relatively short and easy read to get us started. [Sharma et al 2018]
From here on out we will communicate EEB journal club related information via the EEBISO listserv. If you are not a part of this listserv, you can register for it on https://listserv.tamu.edu/ by searching for EEBISO.
Spring 2018
Journal Club meets every Friday at 4 pm at O’Bannon’s in Northgate.
… Friday, May 4. Megan Exnicios will present an article about homosexual behavior in insects. This is probably her last time presenting so expect something special! [Elsevier/Animal Behaviour]
… Friday, April 27. No journal club
… Friday, April 20. Instead of our usual club meeting at O’Bannon’s, we should attend this:
Texas Sea Grant is organizing a public screening of the documentary film STRAWS followed by a panel discussion on April 20th @ 4pm in Rudder Theater.
In 2015, Texas A&M University graduate student Christine Figgener found a sea turtle in the wild with a straw in its nose. She filmed the straw removal, posted her video on YouTube and it went viral. This video helped propel a worldwide movement to reduce the use of straws and other unnecessary single-use plastics. This movement is documented in the film STRAWS.
As part of our Earth Day celebration at TAMU on April 20, 2018, from 4-5:30 pm, we are showing the film in Rudder Theater to the TAMU community. The film is only 30 minutes long. Immediately following the film a panel of students and local celebrities including Christine Figgener, one of the STRAWS film stars, will discuss straws and other single-use plastics, their impacts on wildlife, the environment and human health and solutions for reducing ocean plastic.
… Friday, April 13. Gaston Jofre will be leading the discussion about the origin of tetrapods. See you this Friday at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Origin of tetrapods] Also, this video.
… Friday, April 6. NO JOURNAL CLUB TODAY because of EIS.
… Friday, March 30. Daniel Powell will be leading the discussion. We’ll be talking about avian predation on annual fish and how it affects their survival depending on their size and sex. Interesting experiment! [Reichard et al 2018]
… Friday, March 23. Luke Bower will be leading the discussion of an article that compares face and brain evolution in two groups with high craniofacial variability. See you at O’Bannon’s this Friday! [Evans et al 2017]
… Friday, March 16. No Journal Club. Spring Break
… Friday, March 9 David Saenz will enlighten us about knife fish and their fascinating communication methods. Apparently geographical variation in their electric signal is being ruled by drift rather than some other source of selection. See you at O’Bannon’s. [Picq et al 2016]
… Friday, March 2 Stephen Bovio will be leading the discussion on reinforcement, geographic variation and hybridization in frogs. [Lemmon and Juenger 2017]
… Friday, February 23 Gaston Ignacio Jofre will be lead the discussion about how biased learning can affect mate choice in a butterfly. See you at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. [Westerman et al 2012]
… Friday, February 16 – no journal club
… Friday, February 9 – no journal club, Darwin Day!
… Friday, February 2 we will be talking about how pollinators use smell to locate flowers and how environmental odors affect the pollinator’s olfactory ability. Alyson Brokaw will lead. See you at O’Bannon’s at 4! [Riffell et al 2014]
… Don’t miss this semester’s first meeting of Journal Club on Friday, January 26, 2018. We’ll be discussing two papers: one on sexual attraction in mosses (Ortiz-Ramirez et al. 2017); the other, a comment by Steinhorst and Kudla.
… Tentative date for first EEBISO meeting is this Friday, January 19. There are some EEBISO agenda items besides from journal club that we should discuss sooner rather than later — particularly Darwin Day and fundraising/planning for crawfish boil.
Fall 2017
Journal Club meets every Friday at 4 pm at O’Bannon’s in Northgate to discuss the wonders of science.
… Friday, December 8. Sadly, we are approaching our last Journal Club of the year. Last week’s leaderless dynamic worked really nice so we are going to repeat it again this Friday when we explore the story of Brownian walk. Grab the article and meet us at O’Bannon’s 4 pm.
… Friday, December 1, there’s no leader or paper to discuss. We’ll be talking about indigenous knowledge, science education and the role of culture in science. It should be an interesting discussion! See you at O’Bannon’s at 4 pm.
… Friday, November 24 – no journal club
… Friday, November 17, Mateo Garcia will be leading a discussion about free mate choice in humans. [Sorokowski et al 2017]
… Friday, November 10, we are going to be discussing poison frogs and poison resistance. Come to our dear EEB Journal Club and learn about the evolution and functionality of poison frog resistance to their own poison. David Saenz will walk us through any questions we may have. [Tarvin et al 2017]
… Friday, November 3, Luke Bower will be leading the discussion on an article about “Trophic divergence despite morphological convergence” between snakes from Australia and North America. Should be interesting! See you at O’Bannon’s at 4pm! [Grundler & Rabosky 2014]
… Friday, October 27, our own EEB student organization president Alyson Brokaw will be leading a discussion about bat-pitcher plant mutualism. Happy Bat Week! See you all this Friday at O’Bannon’s at 4pm. Feel free to extend the invitation to other students. [Schoner et al 2017]
… Friday, October 20, we’ll be reading about invertebrate invasions. The deep thinker and meticulous Zachary Hancock will be leading the discussion. See you at O’Bannon’s at 4:00. Bring your jackets because the weather is finally cooling down. [Reise et al 2017]
… Friday, October 13, new EEB student Amanda Beckman will be guiding us in this week’s journal club. Please read this article about the importance of social bonds in baboons and let’s make Amanda’s debut a wonderful, enlightening and fruitful discussion. [McFarland et al 2017]
… Friday, October 6, Gaston Jofre will be leading us through a promising comparative genomic discussion between humans and honey bees, that can possibly help us understand the conservation of autism-related genes. Super interesting! Join us. [Shpliger et al 2017]
… Friday, Sept 22 we’ll be discussing an interesting article about the behavioral mechanisms involved in hybridizing flies. Daniel Powell we’ll be leading the discussion. [Giesen et al 2017]
… Friday, Sept 15th we’ll be talking about sperm storage in guppies. Our sperm expert R.S. Bovio will be leading the discussion. Please extend this invitation to other student/staff/faculty who might be interested in EEB. [Devigili et al 2016]
Spring 2017
… No journal club this Friday, April 28
… This Friday April 21 we are going to be discussing “A mechanism of extreme growth and reliable signaling in sexually selected ornaments and weapons” by Emlen et al 2012 that made it all the way to Science Magazine. David Saenz is going to lead the discussion. [PDF]
… Friday April 7, Zach is going to walk us through how humans recreational use of beaches can be disadvantageous to the threatened hooded plovers. Schlacher et al analyze the negative effects of trampling. [PDF]
… This Friday, March 31st at 4 pm, we’ll be widening our knowledge on how the field of animal personality provides new insights to behavioral ecology. Our very own president Alyson will be leading the discussion.
… Due to the annual Ecological Integration Symposium, there will be no journal club on Friday, March 24.
… No Journal Clubs on March 10 and March 17 due to Spring Break
… Please join us Friday March 3 at 4 pm at O’Bannon’s to discuss a brand new article from about genetic structure of social birds. Stephen Bovio will be leading the discussion. [Morinha et al.]
… Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4 on Friday, 2/24/17 for our fifth EEB Journal Club meeting of the semester. We will be discussing an article about multimodel courtship in peacock spiders from our next (2/27) EEB seminar speaker Damian Elias. Mateo Garcia will be leading the discussion. [PDF, Girard et al 2015]
… Join us at O’Bannon’s at 4 on Friday, Feb 17, 2017 for our fourth EEB Journal Club meeting of the semester. Janelle Goeke will be leading the discussion of “Saving two birds with one stone: solving the quandary of introduced, threatened species” by Gibson and Yong. [PDF]
… Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4 pm on Friday, 2/10/17 for our third EEB Journal Club meeting of the semester. We will be discussing “Species interactions constrain geographic range expansion over evolutionary time.” [Abstract]
… Please join us at O’Bannon’s at 4 on Friday, 2/3/17 for the second EEB Journal Club meeting of the semester. We will be discussing “Divergent natural selection promotes immigrant inviability at early and late stages of evolutionary divergence” (Authors Ingley and Johnson) [Wiley Online]
If you would like to lead next week’s discussion, please bring two or three abstracts to the meeting for the group to choose from.
