October's WEES: Simon Griffith

Simon Griffith

Professor, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney

Seminar: The zebra finch: lessons from the outback into a ‘model’ system (12.00h)

The zebra finch is one of the most widely researched birds across a number of fields in ecology and evolutionary biology and most of this work has focused on laboratory-based birds in Europe and North America. I will present our research on wild zebra finches over the past 15 years covering sperm biology, reproductive ecology, social behaviour, and responses to a hot and extreme climate. The more I learn about the zebra finch, and Australian birds generally, the more I understand that they are very different from European species. The zebra finch is a real outlier amongst passerine birds, and it is those differences that have made them such a good species for captive work in the laboratory. That does raise some issues about the care that we need to take when using them as a ‘model’ system.

Workshop: What organisms should we be studying? (10:30h)

For any research question in biology there is likely to be one, or a few particular species on which it can be most conveniently studied. That makes sense, and can improve the efficiency of doing research. For example, a particular species might be readily available, such as the populations of nest box breeding great tits in many European university towns, or the zebra finches that can be purchased from a pet store. However, it is important to think about the characteristics of those species that determine their amenability for research, and the extent to which they represent biodiversity more generally. Model species are the cornerstone of many fundamental research programs and discoveries, and will retain an important place in the future of biology. However, how does the selection of those relatively few well studied species affect, or bias our understanding of particular areas of research? In this workshop we will discuss the benefits and potential pitfalls of ‘model’ species and consider a clearer framework for choosing the organisms on which we work.

As preparation for the workshop please read the following papers:

Ankeny RA, Leonelli S (2011) What’s so special about model organisms? Studies in History and Philosophy of Science 42, 313–323. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsa.2010.11.039

 Dietrich MR, Ankeny RA, Crowe N, Green S, Leonelli S (2020) How to choose your research organism. Studies in History and Philosophy of Biol & Biomed Sci 80, 101227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2019.101227

 The workshop for those interested is organized from 10:30 to 11:30 online. Registration is required (space limited to 15), email Hugo Loning (hugo.loning@wur.nl) for registration and link to the zoom session. The workshop gives attendees the opportunity to meet the speaker of the seminar and have a discussion based on recent publications. The workshops are a good possibility to get acquainted with hot topics in science and to learn how to discuss these topics with leading scientists in the field. Furthermore, BSc and MSc students can get 1 ECTS for attending 2 workshops.

WEES background & call for new members
WEES is an initiative of PhD students and postdocs at Wageningen University to organize a continuing series of stimulating seminars on contemporary topics in evolution and ecology. For this series we invite researchers from all over the world who have leading roles in their field. We aim to bring together different groups at Wageningen University using a variety of systems, but with a common interest in evolutionary and ecological questions. WEES is funded by graduate schools PE&RC, WIMEK, EPS, VLAG, and WIAS.

The seminar will be hosted on zoom and can be accessed via the following link https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81877531140?pwd=WlBrb01NMDYwUlQxaU1VR2orcGNpdz09.  

Additionally, the link to the seminar will be posted online on our web site (www.weeswageningen.nl) in the week of the seminar. If you experience any problems with accessing the seminar, please contact us at weeswageningen@gmail.com.

Interested in joining the WEES committee and organizing seminars yourself? WEES is looking for new members! We aim for a broad and diverse range in topics and would like to welcome new members to help and include topics not represented yet. If you are curious, send an email to weeswageningen@gmail.com and join one of our meetings.

For more information please visit: www.weeswageningen.nl, Like us on Facebook, or join the Facebook Group for more participation.