This week I managed to add another tick mark to my publication record. Somehow I convinced my boss to put my name on a paper towards which I contributed a very minimal amount of research. It's a cool paper. Lemme ask you this, have you ever looked at a Chinese Shar Pei and wondered "How'd that dog get all them wrinkles"? Well thanks to science we now have a better idea as we identified a gene that helps explain some of the difference between wrinkled and non-wrinkled Shar Pei dogs. At some point, at some time, some breeder took a look at a wrinkled dog (that acquired this trait through a mutation) and said "I want more of that". So he selectively bred for that trait and imposed mighty artificial selection on the dog's genome and voila, we have the Shar Pei. That signal of artificial selection is what we picked up along with over 150 other sites of artificial selection in the genome of dogs from 10 different breeds. While I did very little to add to this paper, it is a very neat paper and I am thankful that my boss would fit me in there. It even managed to score the cover of the journal (using a picture of adorable puppies was our secret weapon) and it has been gathering a lot of interest in the local and even the international press. My boss has been interviewed so many times that he grew tired of it and passed some questions off to me that he received in an email. I answered them and the best part is that this reporter was working for El Clarín, one of Argentina's biggest newspapers! So I am anxiously hoping to be quoted in the Argentine news, but so far it hasn't happened and is looking less and less likely. I even responded in Spanish. ¡A la pucha! All in all I like publishing like this much more than being the first author. You have to actually work for that.Thursday, January 21, 2010
Back off man...I'm a scientist!
This week I managed to add another tick mark to my publication record. Somehow I convinced my boss to put my name on a paper towards which I contributed a very minimal amount of research. It's a cool paper. Lemme ask you this, have you ever looked at a Chinese Shar Pei and wondered "How'd that dog get all them wrinkles"? Well thanks to science we now have a better idea as we identified a gene that helps explain some of the difference between wrinkled and non-wrinkled Shar Pei dogs. At some point, at some time, some breeder took a look at a wrinkled dog (that acquired this trait through a mutation) and said "I want more of that". So he selectively bred for that trait and imposed mighty artificial selection on the dog's genome and voila, we have the Shar Pei. That signal of artificial selection is what we picked up along with over 150 other sites of artificial selection in the genome of dogs from 10 different breeds. While I did very little to add to this paper, it is a very neat paper and I am thankful that my boss would fit me in there. It even managed to score the cover of the journal (using a picture of adorable puppies was our secret weapon) and it has been gathering a lot of interest in the local and even the international press. My boss has been interviewed so many times that he grew tired of it and passed some questions off to me that he received in an email. I answered them and the best part is that this reporter was working for El Clarín, one of Argentina's biggest newspapers! So I am anxiously hoping to be quoted in the Argentine news, but so far it hasn't happened and is looking less and less likely. I even responded in Spanish. ¡A la pucha! All in all I like publishing like this much more than being the first author. You have to actually work for that.
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6 comments:
dude, el clarín! you're famoso! I'm super jealous.
Congrats, you little academic!
Awsome!
You'll be pleased to know that I read this blog post through google reader. Congratulations!
I just heard this article referenced on This American Life! It was the episode called "2010" and I think it was Act III or IV. This couple is trying to guess about the genetics of their unborn child, and a geneticist told them it would be much easier if you were trying to determine dog skin ... because of this article. You're so famous.
They have discussed this on the BBC, various newspapers across the nation, science magazines, even the on an Irish radio station, and now the intellectual dream has been achieved since they discussed this on NPR. This American Life no less. Sadly all of this pales in comparison to the joy I would have felt if that interview was published in El Clarín in Argentina. Looks like it will never be.
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