Postdoc milestone

Today is a very exciting day: my first research paper from postdoc is formally accepted by Genome Research. I am very glad to reach this milestone before the end of my first year here at UA, and the fact that it got into such a great journal is even better.

Bowling is hard

Particularly when there is a koala hanging on your leg, like this:

What the hail?

We had some pea-sized hail this afternoon. I'm really surprised, considering that it is already mid-April and last week was kind of hot. The kids were very excited and each grabbed a bucket running around in the backyard to collect the ice.

Conservation delimma

Dr. Donald Strong from UC Davis gave a very interesting talk on an invasive plant for our department seminar today. In addition to the ecology and evolution of this plant species, I found the implication on conservation very thought provoking.

So you have a new invasive species coming in and taking over everything, needless to say, many other species in the ecosystem are affected by these drastic changes. Now the problem is this: there are two endangered species of birds involved, one being harmed and the other being helped by these changes. You get rid of the invasive plant, one of the birds goes back to its old miserable way of life; you let the invasive plant goes unchecked, the other bird is going to suffer. It is like asking whether you are going to save your son or daughter. No really an easy question and probably have no good answer.

Difficult is difficult

Alyssa: Daddy, pick a difficult word for me to spell.
Me: Okay, try "difficult".
Alyssa: But that word is too difficult!

See what I mean? My daughter is really difficult.