by Marion Duval On my very first day in Sydney, I stopped dead in my tracks to marvel at a flock of large, striking white birds with long, curved black beaks. To my American eyes, they looked exotic and out of place in a small park. A quick Google search Continue Reading
Lab Blog
Why should we care about koalas?
by Lily Munro Koalas are one of Australia’s most unique species. Their cute and cuddly appearance has captured the hearts of many tourists and locals alike. Since being listed as Endangered in Queensland, New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory in 2022, they have also become one of the Continue Reading
Baby’s First Big Conference: SMBE 2024 in Puerto Vallarta
by Toby Kovacs One of the most exciting (and nerve-wracking) milestones in a PhD is dressing your project up, which is often still a little rough around the edges, for a presentation at an international conference. While I’d previously attended several local Australian meetings, last year I had the first Continue Reading
The mother of monsters chooses love not war
by Adele Gonsalvez In Greek mythology, Echidna is known as the “mother of monsters” and is a feared half-woman/half-serpent. However, her possession of mammalian and reptilian traits may be the only similarity between her and her animal namesake. In fact, even when provided with all the weaponry for chemical warfare, Continue Reading
Why do men exist?
by Soleille Miller This remains one of the oldest unanswered questions in biology, pondered by the earliest philosophers in recorded history. Aristotle explored this very question in his seminal book “On the Generation of Animals”. While his theory (i.e. the male parent contributes the form and the female parent contributes Continue Reading
Imitation is the best form of flattery
by Iris Milligan Nature often inspires innovation, with many of us looking to the natural world for solutions in our studies and beyond. This approach is known as biomimicry, and it’s commonly used in fields like architecture and structural engineering. For example, researchers have studied dragonfly wings for their unique Continue Reading
Academic Adventures to the Other Side of the Globe
by Luke Silver (Post-doc) In August of 2024 I had the exciting opportunity to undertake a three-month research stay in the Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics at Ulm University. So how did this come about? Professor Simone Sommer was one of my thesis reviewers and she reached out Continue Reading
Making it through the final stretch of a PhD in conservation genomics and bioinformatics
by Holly Nelson (PhD Student) Entering the final stage of a PhD is both a marathon and a sprint. After a quick 3-4 years of terminal windows, countless hours coding, latex gloves, tweaking plots to the perfect shade of maroon (#B03060), and obsessing over a turtle species that lives a Continue Reading
From Cardiff to Maria Island
by Matt Spadaro When I first arrived in Sydney from the UK, I had no idea which project I would be doing. I found out on my first day that I’d be making a stud book for the Maria Island devils- a place and a species that I was, admittedly, Continue Reading
How to catch a koala
by Dr. Luke Silver Until recently, the majority of research in the Australasian Wildlife Genomics Group occurred on the Tasmanian devil and trapping these marsupial carnivores is quite a straightforward process. Setting a trap overnight baited with a tasty piece of fresh meat to lure the devils inside. Recently, I Continue Reading