It's Half 3 on Thursday..

So, in the last 3 days since posting I have been somewhat less productive than I had planned, reading a little bit here and there, but not being altogether very sensible.

I can't even remember what I did on Tuesday (not a good sign), I suspect it was the read the 3 pages of Lewontin (1961) that have been read. I had the slight excuse that I did a) arrive late following phoning my Mam and Dad b) attend journal club at 5, and c) have a MODO meeting after that which prevented me staying later.

It was Sam's journal club this week, all about the evolutionary mechanisms behind squirrel masturbation. It was a pretty good way for me to spend my first meeting with others in the extended PhD family and I was able to follow it all!! Perhaps I got a little too comfortable, I've agreed to present on the 16th November.

Yesterday was spent in a similar manner as the day before, interrupted repeatedly by MODO related issues and the pressing demands of blogging. At 5 I went to see a lecture by Amotz Zahavi, here on a visit from Tel Aviv, which was interesting to say the least. Sam said the main reason to go would be to say I'd seen him talk, which considering his advanced age (late 70's) was probably not a bad idea. It was certainly an interesting way to spend an hour, despite the lack of slides or visual aids, he held attentions and spoke passionately about his beliefs in the handicap principal. I made notes, which I have put in the "useful" folder. I can follow him up to a point, but even he admits going looking for evidence to support his theory, which is clearly counterproductive to the scientific method. I was only able to stay for the first question, having to dash off to meet my Mam and Dad who are down for the film festival, but it was an interesting one. A developmental biologist asked how the theory that all signals are handicap signals could be applied to development. Zahavi appeared to become a bit unstuck, claiming that development was placed under traditional selection for efficiency, including it's signaling pathways, which seemed to contradict much of what he had previously said. But you never know, he may end up being right again!

Today I have finished Sam's female choice paper (accepting Appendix 2, my brain isn't quite that in gear). Some interesting ideas, not convinced by it all yet, but it's always nice to see a contrasting viewpoint on these things. Will reflect carefully.

New Blog!

Hello,

I have been running a little knitting, spinning, dyeing and various other crafty things blog for a while now over at michaelaknits.blogspot.com, and that shall continue to have all sorts of fun and exciting things on it.

This blog shall be reserved for the somewhat less exciting job of providing me with a journal/online space to store ideas and notes about my PhD. "The PhD" does not yet have a title, or a second supervisor, or even a coherent idea about what I'm supposed to be doing, but has been going since Thursday October 14th, 2010, so 4 days. I do hope these minor(!) issues will be resolved soon.

Today I have finished reading Sam's introduction, and have pulled out a couple of things I'd like to read. As I don't have his complete references, hopefully google will fill in the gaps.

Iwasa & Sasaki (1987) - The number of sexes

Hurst (1995) - The number of sexes

Bulmer & Parker (2002) - Anisogamy

Kruuk et al. (1999) - Condition/rank dependent sex ratios in red deer

Ridley (1978) - Male parental care

Gage & Barnard (1996) - Ejaculate plasticity

Chapman et al. (2003) - Choice to obtain benefits vs. choice to avoid costs

Sheldon (1994) - Phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis

Pizzari et al. (2004) - Phenotype-linked fertility hypothesis

Grafen (1990) - Maths model of handicap theory

Iwasa & Pomiankowski (1994) - Theory of multiple sexual ornaments

Turelli et al. (2001) - Modeling speciation

Kirkpatrick & Ravigne (2002) - Modeling speciation

Gavrilets (2003) - Modeling speciation

Panhuis et al. (2001) - Modeling speciation with sexual selection

Ritchie (2007) - Modeling speciation with sexual selection

Burger (2000) - Population genetics

Kirkpatrick (1996) - Models incorporating evolution into G-Matrix

Lande (1981) - Original quantitative genetic sexual selection

Iwasa et al. (1991) - Quantitative model of sexual selection

Mead & Arnold (2004) - Quantitative genetic model

Iwasa & Pomiankowski (1995) - Quantitative genetic model

Otto & Day (2007) - Quantitative genetic model (chapter 11)

Bost et al. (2001) - Quantitative trait loci distributions

Bell (2010) - Quantitative genetic model

Maynard Smith & Price (1973) - First evolutionary game theory

So that list is in fact vastly longer than I had anticipated. Still, it's hardly as if it all has to be read now! Which is perhaps not the best attitude.

I have also today been to the library, perused the collections, and come away with Birkhead and Moller's Sperm Competition and Sexual Selection, and Andersson's Sexual Selection, which is very boring of me. I had a look for some bedtime reading, found a book on leks which was so out of date it irritated me (this shocked me, normally I find such writing twee) and a book my a man who believed that the hypothesis of sexual selection was false because animals were too "friendly" (taking the concept of the pity shag a bit too far!). It's frustrating to be unable to find something easy to read that's not exceptionally political and/or moronic. This is probably why I knit so much......