Guest blog post at Biodiverse Perspectives

Check out my guest blog post at BioDiverse Perspectives. The post is part of a biodiversity challenge discussed here

The long and short of it:

Tomorrow, your favorite focal biological unit of research (molecule, gene, organelle, organ, organism, ecosystem, general law of nature) will be deleted from the face of the earth. What are the implications?

I wrote about a world without one of my favorite molecules, norepinephrine (aka noradrenaline). Read the post HERE!

Dissertation Defense!

Whoo! For the past five years I have been studying the influence of the social environment on the behavior and brain of the furtive, feisty Lincoln's sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii). I determined how exposure to songs that were either more or less attractive influenced mate preferences in females and influenced singing behavior in males. I also determined how experience with these songs influenced dopamine and norepinephrine in auditory regions of the brain.

Last week I (successfully) defended my dissertation. If you haven't seen and heard enough about songbird brains and behavior, you can watch the defense right here: