Over on the Methods in Ecology & Evolution blog, Sam (our Assistant Editor) has just put up a podcast she edited from interviews made by Barb Anderson at Intecol this year. She wandered the meeting with a sonic screwdriver asking assorted ecologists to talk about the methods they use – the oldest, the newest, and what method they would want to see invented. The results are here:
Old Methods
(which, alas does not seem to give the full Soundcloud plugin experience on this page. Poo.)
and check the MEE blog post for a list of who said what.
You will notice I evaded interview. After considerable though, I decided that the oldest method I’ve used is procrastination, something even older than regression. My newest method is clearly twitter, and I’d really like a method that would let the computer do all the hard work of making my MCMC work, but not too quickly (because MCMC runs are, in effect, more modern implementations of procrastination).
What method do you use?
My oldest grant writing method is a combination of deadlines, adrenaline, and panic.
That makes it sound like your boss releases a sabre toothed tiger an hour before the deadline.
I used to be proficient in a number of methods that nobody cares about any more – radioactive DNA probe labeling, Southern blots, polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis, pulsed-field gels, and so forth.
Now I am most proficient in complaining about new operating systems and application upgrades, and how I liked the old versions better. It’s a talent I’ve cultivated over many years.
People don’t do Southerns any more? Oh dear.
I don’t complain about upgrades too often, but the new iPhone OS….