Talk in Köln

On February 6th, I gave a talk in Cologne entitled “Dense neural circuit reconstruction and graph theoretical analysis of nematode nervous systems.” In it, I emphasized primarily some of the graph theory I have been using to try and understand circuit function. I was invited by Einhard Schierenberg, who works on cell lineage evolution in nematodes. His postdoc, Jens Schulz, took the time to give me a bit of a tour of the city and had me try a bit of Kölsch at a local brewery.  I was also had a great chat (though a little short) with Johannes Berg, a physicist who is interested in network statistics. I’ll have to go back and check out more of the city when it is a bit warmer…

Brand new publication in a brand new journal!

A review I did with Ralf on nematode models in Evolutionary and Developmental biology just came out in WIRES Developmental Biology.  http://wires.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WiresArticle/wisId-WDEV33.html

In it we describe how a number of nematode species (not just C. elegans and P. pacificus!) have contributed to our understanding of evo-devo. The paper is interesting, but the publication venue is also interesting… WIRES Developmental Biology, which is a new (only 1 issue so far) online-only publication put out by Wiley. It is intended to be “a state of the art online reference resource for all of developmental biology, one that will cover basic concepts as well as specific topics, and will collect and integrate the findings and insights of our field in a comprehensive, authoritative manner.” Kind of like a peer-reviewed encyclopedia of state-of-the-art knowledge about development. I’m hoping this is just the first paper in  a very good publication year!