This is an update from my previous blog post on Toepad pictures. I’ve taken more than four hundred toepad pictures using the new macro photography technique I introduced in an earlier post and I’ve learned a few tricks that I want to share in this update. First and foremost, I highly recommend this approach. For those of you looking to capture … More An update on taking toepad pictures
This is a reblog of a post I wrote over on Anole Annals Getting good pictures of lizard toepads in the field can be tricky. Flatbed scanners are heavy and don’t take well to transit bumps and bruises, and getting a digital camera to focus on the toe, not the glass, requires surgical precision on the manual focus ring. … More A new method for taking toepad pictures in the field!
I’ve posted a lot of really pretty drone pictures and video these last six months and I’m realizing that this drone is actually pretty exciting tool for science communication. A reporter the other day said that she’d watched my Redonda video as part of her background research and it really helped her get a feel for … More Drones to data
Now, when I really want to put something (or somebody) to sleep, my dissertation prospectus is pretty much the first thing I grab. Reading that thing aloud… well, does the trick. Sometimes though, especially in the case of my little lizards, it’s handy to have a trick to get them to go to sleep just a … More How to put a lizard to sleep
There are lots of ways to catch a lizard. The low-tech solution of course is the old ‘lift a rock and smash your hand down on anything that moves’ method. I tend to prefer more delicate techniques though, particularly in deference to the vipers that also make their homes under these rocks. So if it’s … More Fishing for lizards
As I’ve mentioned before, one of my primary research interests is how these lizards change in different contexts. So far I’ve measured a whole lot of morphological traits like limb length and head width on lizards from islands all over the cyclades. I’ve also measured a whole-organism performance trait, namely bite force, which relies on … More Lizard sprint speed
My more candid readers have pointed out that I promised to convince you that scientists should be on social networks and my first post in this series managed only to demonstrate that social networks are big. I didn’t want to belabor the point but hopefully I also partially convinced you that people are making big … More Harnessing Social Media For Science: Part 2: Collaboration and Education
We’re well into Fall semester now and I’m helping to lead a class called Natural Science Research Methods. The goal of the class is to help new Masters students in the School of Forestry propose and plan their two-year thesis project. It’s exciting hearing about all of the cool research ideas these students are wrestling with. This … More How to write a bad research proposal
