This summer our lab welcomes  two visiting scholars from Colorado and Denmark.

Conley Flynn
High School Teacher, Cherry Creek High School

​Conley comes to us through the National Teacher Revolution: Teachers Researching Evolution, a program through the Kellogg Biological Station  funded by BEACON: NSF Center for the Study of Evolution in Action. 

Conley says "I am interested in this lab because it explore a type of research that I am not familiar with. The principles and research techniques that explore behavioral plasticity can be included in the classroom setting to enhance scientific inquiry among high school students."

She will  working with Kim Dolphin this summer to get hands-on research experience and learn techniques that she can bring back to her classes.

Tanya   Bojesen Lauridsen
PhD student, University of Southern Denmark (Syddansk Universitet, SDU)

Through Tanya we discovered that it is a requirement of  PhD programs  in Denmark to go on an "environmental exchange" to meet new people and do some networking. Now we all wish we'd gone to school in Denmark! Tanya is part of a group called Sound Communication and Behaviour and is from the lab of Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard.

Tanya says: "I am studying the development of the middle ear and hearing in amphibians. Previously I’ve done physiological studies (auditory brainstem response (ABR)), biophysical (laser vibrometry - measuring vibrations of the eardrum and body induced by sound), and anatomical studies (µCT, Inouye staining and old school dissections).  To add yet another dimension and to throw myself out in very deep water, I thought that I might try my hand at ISH. Since you guys do that and because of your interest in evo-devo, it felt like a good match." She will be be focusing on in situ hybridization (ISH) and histology this summer.

Follow Tanya on Twitter: @TanyaLauridsen

Over the weekend Kim, Miles and Laura went to Austin, TX for the Center for Brain, Behavior & Evolution's   Spring symposium on brain, behavior and evolution on the theme of   Behavioral Epigenetics.  Kim Hoke gave a talk on "The epigenetics of fear in tropical guppies" and Miles presented a poster  entitled "A Fish Tale: Influence of Predation on RNA Editing in the Trinidadian Guppy."

The School of Global Environmental Sustainability’s (SoGES) Global Biodiversity Center  hosted the sixth annual Ignite Night  at one of our favorite venues, Avogadro's Number.   The Ignite format allows each speaker to present 20 slides in five minutes, where the slides progress automatically every 15 seconds. We were all impressed at how well Kim connected her work on guppy brains to the topic of biodiversity!
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Kim is heading to Mexico next week to teach in the Computational Biology and Genomics Workshop in Todos Santos.

Kim D. hosted Dr. Eric Fortune for an MCIN talk ​on the sensorimotor mechanisms of duets in songbirds. It was a great talk and we very much enjoyed hosting Eric! 

Leorah attended the SciComm 2018 conference on science communication at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln over March 23-25.  She met many great scientists and communicators as they discussed effective science communication throughout the weekend. Check out #SciComm2018 on social media to see everyone's posts from the conference.  

Here are some of Leorah's favorite scicomm and education resources from the weekend:
A comic about viruses
​A book of vocabulary for writing and talking to children
A website to help measure the readability of writing for general audiences
A TED Talk on science communication
Practice briefs for how to handle issues in STEM education
A virtual lab on marine  science and oil spill science for all ages
Engaging Scientists and Engineers in  Policy
Catalyzing Advocacy in Science and Engineering program in DC for  undergraduate & graduate students
Science with Kennen: Decision Quicksand   - Film Festival winner
A book about talking science to journalists and policymakers 

The Hoke Lab is seeking motivated, outstanding undergraduates interested in the study of animal behavior, neuroscience, skull structure, and evolution to conduct research over the summer via NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU). The Hoke Lab explores population and species differences in the development and mechanisms of behavior. The primary goal of the Hoke lab is to understand the processes that shape evolutionary trajectories. We focus on the mechanisms of convergent evolution of behavioral and morphological traits. 

A small group of undergraduates will work together as a team to contribute to large-scale experiments, and students are also expected to complete independent research projects. REU students will take part in one of several projects that explore brain development and how experiences shape behavior in Trinidadian guppies (1) or the evolution and development of middle ear structures in anurans (2). Students will develop skills including fish husbandry, designing and analyzing behavioral assays, in situ hybridization, microscopy, and microCT scan analysis under the guidance of senior lab members. Pay is $12.50/hr, and students will be expected to work full time (40hrs/week for 10 weeks).

If interested, please send a CV and a brief (one paragraph) statement of interest to Leorah McGinnis (leorah@colostate.edu) by   March 5th, 2018.  Please include a description of any previous lab or field experience.
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Number of positions: 3 
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The Front Range Student Ecology Symposium is in full swing here at CSU this week. Kim D. presented an oral presentation today on  Divergent Decision Rules in Alternative Mating Tactics in Trinidadian guppies. 

Abstract  from the FRESES Program:
WHAT IN YOUR RIGHT MIND WOULD MAKE YOU DO THAT? 
Colorado State University, Graduate.
With Kimberly Dolphin (CSU), Kim Hoke (CSU)

Behavioral plasticity allows strategies toward conspecifics to change on an acute time scale to balance trade-offs presented in different environments and social contexts. However, decisions between strategies may be biased by the genetic and developmental history of the individual from differences within the brain, and may have strong implications for an organism's ability to adapt in novel environments and respond to cues about risk or reward. Using male Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata), we tested how evolutionary history and rearing environment affects which behavioral strategies are adopted and affects the patterns of neural activation in socially relevant brain regions across five acute social contexts. We used these fish because they originate from populations that have evolved with either high or low predation threat, and now have different behavioral strategies and morphologies. We scored behaviors of focal males in these social contexts and then measured neural activation using immunoreactivity for phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 (pS6). Ancestry and rearing conditions influence the behavioral strategies fish adopt when placed in different acute social contexts. Patterns of pS6 induction across the brain regions studied are associated with behavioral strategies adopted in each acute context. Our results show circuit level neural mechanisms underlie the behavioral plasticity and flexibility we see in males from populations with differing predation threats. 

On Monday, December 11, 2017 our own Jacob Edwards will defend his Master's Thesis. The defense will take place in Bio 133 at CSU. Be sure to stop by if you're in the area! Jacob will be moving on to Columbia University in the Spring, where he will be a PhD student in the  Woolley Lab, studying birdsong and learning.

Laura Stein  is presenting some of her work at the Biology Department Seminar today, November  15.   We're looking forward to her talk!