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Drumheller

This year, we took a lab trip up to the Royal Tyrell Museum of Paleontology for the day. It was a chance to get out of town, see some dinosaurs and for some of our lab that isn't from Alberta, see a part of the province that most people don't bother visiting. Although the museum was the purpose of the trip, Ben's lunch recommendation of Bernie and The Boys was equally awesome.

Spring 2016

Ground squirrel trapping is over for now, but it was a successful season with Ayanda and Juliana capturing plenty of animals for autoradiography and Golgi staining. Currently, it is 'drumming season' and Ashley and Nick are out in the Crowsnest Pass region trying to trap as many ruffed grouse as they can for genetic samples and morphometrics. I was at my usual haunt, Buck Lake, trapping a few birds for a collaboration with Matt Fuxjager on the expression of androgen receptors in muscles and spinal cord.

Holidays 2015

This year, we held the 1st Iwaniuk Lab Christmas Movie event. This year's selection was Trading Places, a classic from the '80s.

Society for Neuroscience 2015

This is the first year that I took undergraduate students to the annual SFN meeting. Both Janae and Nathan did a great job of dealing with all of the people that visited their posters as well as embracing the true nature of the J.B. Johnston Club and SFN meetings: socializing with other scientists over good food and beer.

manakins again

Lab reading for this week:

Fuxjager et al. (2015) Evolutionary patterns of adaptive acrobatics and physical performance predict expression profiles of androgen receptor - but not oestrogen receptor - in the forelimb musculature. Func Ecol, in press.

gobies and fairy-wrens

Last week we read: Schwabl H, et al. (2015) Variation in song system anatomy and androgen levels does not correspond to song characteristics in a tropical songbird. Anim Behav 104: 39-50. This week we are into fish: White GE, Brown C (2015) Microhabitat use affects brain size and structure in intertidal gobies. Brain Behav Evol

Drumming season 2015

Another spring and another season of following ruffed grouse. This year, Nick is largely responsible for recording ruffed grouse drumming and completing playback experiments with them. So far, we have a lot of birds in a very small area, which is making fieldwork considerably easier than previous years.

Scholarship success!

This year, two students were successful in obtaining both summer NSERC and summer AIHS scholarships to continue to work in the lab. Congratulations to both Nathan and Lauren!