March 9, 2004
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I just got my new teaching assignment for next quarter! And it is NOT Bio101! Yay me! I will be teaching Bio116, Honors Biology for Life Science majors.
Of course, I have NO clue what I’ll be teaching them. But at least they’re sciency people!
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And since you’re already wasting time on-line….who wants to read my tentative abstract for my impending conference? I’m open to any suggestions about it. The only rule is that it can be ONLY 1,000 characters long. What I’ve got written right now is 972.
The basis of variation in intraspecific pigmentation in pelage or plumage is of considerable interest from a molecular and ecological point of view. Nucleotide variation in melanocortin 1 receptor (MC1R) gene has been implicated in the melanic variants in wild populations of Coereba flaveola and Chaetodipus intermedius, as well as several other species. MC1R variation was used to examine the molecular basis for two intraspecific plumage varieties in avians – the inland and coastal subspecies of Melospiza georgiana and the Florida and Georgia subspecies of Ammodramus savannarum. Each subspecies is variable in the amount of melanic plumage (Florida and coastal varieties more melanic) but lacks the total body melanism seen in the other studies. No correlation between variation within the MC1R gene and plumage variation was found. This leads to the conclusion that MC1R is not responsible for these small-scale pigment pattern variations.
Comments (7)
The “were” in the second to the last sentence needs to be “was” for subject-verb agreement, but otherwise it sounds fine.
SEXY!
nice work…i love science too! i would change the first sentence to say: The basis of variation… is of considerable interest from a molecular and ecological point of view. rock out with your bad self.
Ok, coming from a non-science person (sorry, I loved english and art, just didn’t fit in with the math/science crowd), I’m sure it’s brilliant
!!!!
While I haven’t taught the course for non-science majors, teaching actual bio majors is fairly cool. They’re more interested in what you’re teaching them. Even better for you that it’s an honors class – you’ll get kids who actually want to be there.
The abstract is hot!
sounds good to me
can’t wait to see you this weekend! fun times ahead!