Hello Friends,
Last week I was at the Bigelow Lab (http://www.bigelow.org/) for a seminar. My visit was hosted by Ben Twining and Ramunas Stepanauskas. I really enjoyed the visit. One thing that stuck with me is the single cell genomics work Ramunas is doing. It turns out that cells of the same species (judged by 16S rRNA similarity) and from the same drop of water, typically (actually, apparently always) have different DNA. I always thought they would be the same, except for a rare mutation here and there. So are microbes as different as people? Have to do some more thinking about this... but - of course - as an individual-based modeler, I see a lot of opportunity for using IBMs here. “Single cell genomics is to metagenomics what individual-based modeling is to population-level modeling”?
Visit our presentations at ASLO! Neil Fredrick will present a talk entitled “EXPLORING MECHANISMS OF P CONTENT HETEROGENEITY IN CULTURED PHYTOPLANKTON USING AGENT-BASED MODELING” in session GS08A Plankton Ecology - Phytoplankton on Feb. 19. Here is a link: http://www.sgmeet.com/aslo/neworleans2013/viewabstract2.asp?AbstractID=10781
And John Berges will present “DIVERSE CAUSES OF CELL DEATH IN PHYTOPLANKTON IN SMALL FRESHWATER ECOSYSTEMS” in session SS79 Phytoplankton interactions in aquatic ecosystems. Here is a link:
http://www.sgmeet.com/aslo/neworleans2013/viewabstract2.asp?AbstractID=11365
We had our 3rd Charles River Water Quality Workshop last week, which was attended by 30 people. This is an annual event where we bring together people doing research on the river and share results in an informal setting. The agenda and presentation slides are available online here:
http://thecharles.org/2013WaterQualityWorkshopPresentations.html
Best regards,
Ferdi
