Inspired by Martin Eve (link), I decided to make a documentation of academic-related stuff I’ve achieved in 2013. The last year was mostly occupado by the first year of my PhD, but other academic-ish stuff too as complimentary activities to research. This is kinda like a personal diary of ‘achievements’, as well as a documentation of the extent of work-procrastination. As such, please feel free not to share this with my supervisor 😉
The 12 days of PhD Christmas
Twelve Dinners Delivered (to the lab)
Eleven Papers Prepping
Ten Bugs-a-Bugging
Nine Ladies Dancing (but not with you)
Eight Bunsens-a-Burnin’
Seven Dance Solos
Six Words a Minute
Fiiive Grants Rejected
Four Calling Mates (“I’m busy“)
Three Absent Supervisors
Two Days off a Year (maybe)
And a h-index of nooought.
![(source)](https://blogs.egu.eu/network/palaeoblog/files/2013/12/phd070210s-300x130.jpg)
(source)
Merry Christmas everyone!
To bird or not to bird..
In 2012, the controversial case over whether or not Archaeopteryx lithographica, perhaps the most iconic dinosaur species of all time, was a bird was settled. Apparently. (free pdf) This was an important analysis for two reasons. Firstly, it countered a previous study showing that Archaeopteryx was more closely related to dinosaurs like Velociraptor and Deinonychus, and secondly used advanced, sort of non-traditional methods in palaeontology, called maximum likelihood and Bayesian analysis, to work out its relationships.
It’s been a while..!
In a post two months ago, I promised that I’d keep you updated with how my research is progressing. Needless to say, I’ve done a pretty poor job of that, unless you follow me on Twitter! I must apologise – the workload while travelling was severely under-estimated, and I’ve barely had time to catch a nap. I’m writing to you now from Lyon, where I finally had a day off in about a month to explore the Basilica and Roman amphitheater ruins here, and am now nestled in a snug pub hammering away at a manuscript!