opinion… Plan B: COVID-19 challenges for field-based PhD students 8 Dec 20208 Dec 2020 Blistering heat, pouring rain, finding volunteers, submitting field-trip forms, forgetting equipment, data sheets blowing away in the wind — a field-based research project is hard at the best of times.…
concepts Climate explained: humans have dealt with plenty of climate variability 24 Sep 2020 © Professor John Long, Flinders University, Author provided (originally published on The Conversation) How much climate variability have humans dealt with since we evolved and since we started settling (Neolithic…
concepts… History of species distribution models 21 Jul 2020 This little historical overview by recently completed undergraduate student, Sofie Costin (soon to join our lab!), nicely summarises the history, strengths, and limitations of species distribution modelling in ecology, conservation and restoration.…
careers… I’m nearing the end of my PhD/postdoc … What the hell am I supposed to do now? 13 Jul 2020 What do you want to be when you grow up? The term ‘job security’ seems a fanciful idea to budding biologists — you may as well be studying unicorns (and…
diversity… Queer science 18 Jun 202018 Jun 2020 Happy Pride Month to the beautiful Queers of the scientific community, and beyond! I decided to write this post to help non-queer scientists interact respectfully with their queer colleagues. When…
PhD… You’ll be on the Red List if your supervisor goes extinct 15 Jun 2020 Bearing in mind that a PhD candidacy will last roughly three and a half years, the planned endeavour should be achievable in the given time, according to personal capability and…
research Amphibian conservation in a managed world 1 Apr 2020 The amphibian class is diverse, and ranges from worm-like caecilians to tiny frogs that live their entire lives within bromeliads high in the rainforest canopy. Regardless of form or habit,…
research Climate change and humans together pushed Australia’s biggest beasts to extinction 25 Nov 201926 Nov 2019 Over the last 60,000 years, many of the world’s largest species disappeared forever. Some of the largest that we generally call ‘megafauna’ were first lost in Sahul — the super-continent…
research Logbook of Australia’s ancient megafauna 20 Nov 201920 Nov 2019 Australia is home to some of the most unique species worldwide, including egg-laying mammals, tree-climbing, desert-bouncing and and burrow-digging marsupials, and huge flightless birds. While these animals are fascinating, the…
policy Fires, floods and “inner-city raving lunatics” 16 Nov 2019 It’s a Monday night and I am frantically checking with friends from back home on the Eyre Peninsula if they and their homes are safe from the fire. I am scrolling social…
concepts What is a ‘mass extinction’ and are we in one now? 13 Nov 2019 (reproduced from The Conversation) -- For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of…
policy Respecting Aboriginal culture through language 16 Oct 201916 Oct 2019 What's in a name? Well, rather a lot, I think. Names have meanings, and not just in the way that they tag people, places or objects. I am of the…
careers… A new environment for personal transformation: what Australia has meant to me 12 Sep 2019 When developing an academic career, sticking in one’s homeland has its pros and cons. -- On your home turf there will usually be at least a few family members with…
student experiences 10 things I wish I knew before doing an Honours degree 19 Aug 201921 Nov 2019 In 2018 I started my Honours degree in biodiversity and conservation at Flinders University. I had completed my Bachelor of Science in 2017, after being accepted in the Honours stream…
research Rising human populations drive environmental degradation in Africa 27 Jun 201925 Jun 2019 Almost a decade ago, I (co-) wrote a paper examining the socio-economic correlates of gross, national-scale indices of environmental performance among the world's nations. It turned out to be rather…
research First Australians arrived in large groups using complex technologies 18 Jun 2019 One of the most ancient peopling events of the great diaspora of anatomically modern humans out of Africa more than 50,000 years ago — human arrival in the great continent…
research Koala extinctions past, present, and future 12 Jun 201912 Jun 2019 Koalas are one of the most recognised symbols of Australian wildlife. But the tree-living marsupial koala is not doing well throughout much of its range in eastern Australia. Ranging as…
careers… Being empathetic for better interdisciplinarity 4 Jun 2019 Scientists appear to have mixed feelings when it comes to interdisciplinarity in science — the reaction spans from genuine enthusiasm right through to pure disdain. I myself have crossed many…
