Browsing the internet the other day I found some amazing work one man and his father had completed over the past year. Nick Risinger quit his job and travelled around the globe taking extremely well-planned photos to piece together an entire picture of the Earth's night sky. The picture itself is 5 gigapixels in size (5,000 megapixels) and was stitched together from 37,440 individual photographs. It features ten of millions of stars, red clouds of glowing hydrogen, and is absolutely breathtaking. The fact that the stars seen in this photo are thought to be less than 0.001% of the total in our galaxy alone is beyond belief and really poses the question - in time, what amazing thing will we discover throughout the universe?
The night sky
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
LSU
In August I will be moving to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, United States, to study for a PhD at Louisiana State University (LSU). This will take about 5-6 years to complete, and will include around two years of coursework, some teaching of undergraduate students, and a major component of research in the field of evolutionary ecology, which I'm excited and a little nervous about.
The research I will be conducting will be looking at the evolution of latitudinal gradients in plant-herbivore interactions between the Common reed (Phragmites australis) and its suite of insect herbivores. I'll be doing field work in both Phragmites native (Europe) and invasive (North America) home ranges. This is something I'm particularly excited about as it will provide me with a good opportunity to travel up North America's east coast and the west coast of North Africa and Europe.
For those interested in a bit more detail on the project, the Phragmites genus consists of at least 27 haplotypes, basically a term for organisms which are genetically (and often morphologically) distinct, but are not recognised as separate species as they may still interbreed. There are up to 15 different haplotypes of Phragmites in North America, most of which are native, but at least one of which is an aggressively invasive species originally from Eurasia, which is slowly displacing native Phragmites haplotypes throughout the United States. Because the native and invasive haplotypes occur together in many places (especially along the east coast of the United States), this provides a unique study system with which to look at the effects of short term evolution (i.e. the separation into separate haplotypes of the Phragmites genus) on plant-herbivore interactions. By examining any differences in plant-herbivore interactions between haplotypes (such as herbivore diversity, density and abundance, and plant palatability and chemical defence levels) along an eastern North America transect and a similar North Africa/Europe transect, we can investigate just what factors contribute to particular haplotypes of Phragmites being successful invasive species. This is just one of several interesting research questions which I will be investigating during the course of my PhD research. Even more information on the project can be found here.
All in all, I think this is actually the perfect PhD research project for me. It is based around studying evolutionary processes with a highly regarded advisor (Dr. Jim Cronin), includes amazing travel opportunities, expands on some skills I have already acquired, and will teach me a wide range of new skills for my future career.
Aside from the academic side of things, LSU seems like it is an amazing university to go to and has plenty to offer in the way of socialising and extracurricular activites. The main thing I'm excited about is watching College Football. LSU has one of the best college league american football teams in the whole country, and a stadium with a reputation that appears to even succeed their sparkling football history. The stadium is called Tiger Stadium, holds 92,400 people (sixteenth largest stadium in the world!), and is known by the nickname Death Valley. This is because it's known to be the loudest stadium around - the noise coming from the stadium on one occasion resulted in an earthquake being recorded at the LSU's geological sciences department.
Approximately 75 days until I leave...
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| Phragmites australis seed head |
For those interested in a bit more detail on the project, the Phragmites genus consists of at least 27 haplotypes, basically a term for organisms which are genetically (and often morphologically) distinct, but are not recognised as separate species as they may still interbreed. There are up to 15 different haplotypes of Phragmites in North America, most of which are native, but at least one of which is an aggressively invasive species originally from Eurasia, which is slowly displacing native Phragmites haplotypes throughout the United States. Because the native and invasive haplotypes occur together in many places (especially along the east coast of the United States), this provides a unique study system with which to look at the effects of short term evolution (i.e. the separation into separate haplotypes of the Phragmites genus) on plant-herbivore interactions. By examining any differences in plant-herbivore interactions between haplotypes (such as herbivore diversity, density and abundance, and plant palatability and chemical defence levels) along an eastern North America transect and a similar North Africa/Europe transect, we can investigate just what factors contribute to particular haplotypes of Phragmites being successful invasive species. This is just one of several interesting research questions which I will be investigating during the course of my PhD research. Even more information on the project can be found here.
All in all, I think this is actually the perfect PhD research project for me. It is based around studying evolutionary processes with a highly regarded advisor (Dr. Jim Cronin), includes amazing travel opportunities, expands on some skills I have already acquired, and will teach me a wide range of new skills for my future career.
Aside from the academic side of things, LSU seems like it is an amazing university to go to and has plenty to offer in the way of socialising and extracurricular activites. The main thing I'm excited about is watching College Football. LSU has one of the best college league american football teams in the whole country, and a stadium with a reputation that appears to even succeed their sparkling football history. The stadium is called Tiger Stadium, holds 92,400 people (sixteenth largest stadium in the world!), and is known by the nickname Death Valley. This is because it's known to be the loudest stadium around - the noise coming from the stadium on one occasion resulted in an earthquake being recorded at the LSU's geological sciences department.
Approximately 75 days until I leave...
 |
| LSU campus featuring Tiger Stadium |
Sunday, May 8, 2011
The Best Country in the World
While I'm overseas studying I'm pretty sure that there are going to be moments when I feel homesick. I'm not really looking forward to it, because let's face it, New Zealand is a pretty damn good place to live. I think the single best thing is the large amount of unspoilt wilderness. From almost anywhere in the country you can drive for less then two hours and find yourself on a deserted beach with golden sand, in a patch of native bush, or halfway up a snow-covered mountain. So, I put together a video of some of my favourite places in New Zealand to help remind me of home.
The footage was shot on various trips around the South Island of New Zealand with work, university, and my friends and family, and I edited the video in Windows Movie Maker (I thought this program was crap, but the Windows 7 version actually works quite well!)
The song is by my old band, Mammoth, and is called Two Weeks.
The footage was shot on various trips around the South Island of New Zealand with work, university, and my friends and family, and I edited the video in Windows Movie Maker (I thought this program was crap, but the Windows 7 version actually works quite well!)
The song is by my old band, Mammoth, and is called Two Weeks.
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