Monthly Archives: September 2012

Between Two Professors: Pros and cons to online undergraduate education

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Note: This is a conversation I had with Holly Dunsworth, a biological anthropologist at the University of Rhode Island. This conversation is cross-posted at the blog she co-authors, The Mermaid’s Tale. Do you like the idea of online education? Adam: … Continue reading →

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Population level extinction in human prehistory readings, part 1

Posted on September 24, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

One of my current research projects is investigating the potential impact of population level extinction in human evolutionary history. I am focusing my efforts on Late Pleistocene Europe because it is a time and a place that we have a … Continue reading →

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Speaking of genomics…

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

…I am serving as a monthly columnist for Anthropology News this year. My debut column, “Impersonal Genomics and Anthropology“, is up as of today. Check it out.

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ENCODE, CODIS and genomic law

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Jennifer Wagner (@DNAlawyer) has a great post up on the potential legal implications of the recent ENCODE project publications. As a little background, the ENCODE project generated tremendous headlines by suggesting that a much larger portion of the genome is … Continue reading →

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In defense of equations

Posted on September 21, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

PNAS has a series of brief comments on the role that equations–and more broadly, math-heavy papers–play in the citation frequency of biology articles (see here, here, here, here and here). It appears to be the case that in at least … Continue reading →

Posted in Evolution, Teaching | Tagged | 1 Comment

I am excited about grading

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

To be honest, the title to this post includes five words that I would never expect to write without including the modifier “not” before “excited.” I really do not enjoy grading. I like developing creative projects and assessments for students, … Continue reading →

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A blog (and model) to follow

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

If you have not already seen it, you should check out (bookmark, subscribe to the RSS) Haldane’s Sieve. Not only does it have a great title, but it is an amazing resource for discussions of contemporary evolutionary and population genetics … Continue reading →

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Opening the genome for understanding, not simply exploration

Posted on September 5, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

I regularly make the distinction between information and knowledge generated from genomic studies. Information is just that, the explorative identification of genetic diversity. What nucleotide base or allelic variant is where on what chromosome in the genome? The Human Genome … Continue reading →

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The march of the syllabi

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Adam Van Arsdale

Today marks the beginning of the Fall semester at Wellesley College. I am teaching two courses this Fall, Forensic Anthropology (Anth 209) and The Anthropology of Food (Anth 110). This will be my fourth time teaching Forensic Anthropology at Wellesley, … Continue reading →

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