Published: Urban socioeconomic inequality and biodiversity often converge, but not always

https://twitter.com/eco_RK/status/1242792202096574466 I remember when the idea of biodiversity inequality first took root in my brain. It all started with an entomology (study of insects) course at Boston University and our numerous field trips around the city looking for multi-legged critters. It is not surprising that insect diversity is unevenly distributed across a city, or any…

New Job: BU URBAN Program Manager

There is a movement happening in US higher education. Universities are trying to figure out how to prepare graduate students for a complicated world and a changing economy. The traditional model in which we turn graduate students into professors is no longer sustainable; instead, we need graduates working in every career sector, ready to apply…

Three Research Findings from Three Years of Pokémon Go (Part 3 of 3)

Three years ago, the Augmented Reality game Pokémon Go debuted, inviting players to download the app and hit the streets in order to collect a diversity of virtual Pokémon out in the real world. As an ecologist and a big fan of biological diversity, I naturally wondered how Pokémon Go might replace or complement real-world…

Does catching Pidgeys help you notice Pigeons? Interviews with Pokémon Go Researchers (Part 2 of 3)

[Re-posted from That's Life [Science] - for original, click here] In Part 1, I discussed the value of experiencing the mind-boggling range of life we have on our planet, also known as biodiversity. I argued that when we interact with biodiversity, we understand it better, value it more, and support conservation measures that protect biodiversity.…

Biodiversity in my Backyard: Encounters with Pidgeys and Dratinis (Part 1 of 3)

[Re-posted from That's Life [Science] - for original, click here] Let’s get real: our planet is full of AMAZING stuff, from the shrimpoluminescence of pistol shrimp to the elegant movement of C. elegans. When you put all these neat creatures together, the entire diversity of life on earth (which we call “biodiversity”) can feel quite…

Turning invasive plants into something sweet

Some people just love plants, as I've written elsewhere, and we humans have a rich history of cultivating, caring for, and consuming the plants around us. As we moved around the world, we brought plants with us, spreading them to new environments. This strategy has almost always been a Win for the plants we moved,…

Happy Earth Day 2019!

The Google Doodle for Earth Day 2019 celebrates one of the most interesting aspects of our earth: biodiversity. Framed in terms of superlatives, the doodle highlights the bird with the widest wingspan (wandering albatross), the tree with the tallest height (coastal redwood), and the cricket in the deepest cave (deep cave springtail). Google is right:…

Sewing Snails and Shirts

If you've interacted with me in a professional or even non-professional setting, the likelihood of me wearing a shirt with small animals on it is probably close to 50%. But it is surprisingly hard to find small-animal-shirts that are simultaneously subtle, sharp, and silly. To address this market failure, I am on a mission to…

Musings on Evaluation

For information about the evaluation services I can offer your organization, click here. Here's a quick story that may appear to be about jam but is really about evaluation: We begin in my friend's apartment, with me struggling to open a jar of homemade jam. I asked my friend for a butter knife so I…