Author Archives: mcdonouce
Many Drafts of my Personal Statement
I hate writing personal statements. I stare at a blank page, wildly uncomfortable talking about myself and daunted by the enormous influence over my future I ascribe to this one document. Nevertheless, through an arduous process of many drafts and numerous rounds of edits, I managed to write a statement that contributed to my acceptance into grad school and […]
Visualizing the Drosophila Female Reproductive Tract
Scouring the literature on Drosophila reproduction for my research, I’ve encountered illustrations of the fruit fly female reproductive tract (FRT) that range from intricate and realistic to simple line drawings. I started paying attention to these different styles when I was working on my own figure for a recent review paper. I went through several iterations […]
The First Year
On one of the first warm days this past spring I worked up the courage to ask a senior graduate student in my lab if she was keen for an afternoon Starbucks trip. The coffee invitation was a ruse, I really wanted to ask her for advice on feeling productive in as a graduate student. […]
The Fertility of Miró
Originally posted on Metathesis:
I have never quite gotten surrealist, post-modern art. (Left to my own devices I happily spend my museum visits floating around the impressionist era.) I look at abstract symbolic paintings and feel that I miss the intended emotion or meaning—as if the painters and their devotees speak a language I cannot…
Perils of Click-Bait Science Communication, or There’s Many a Slip ‘twixt the Cup and the Lip
Originally posted on Metathesis:
Science communication plays an integral role in bridging the gap between academia and the public. Science writers have the tricky job of distilling complex ideas into digestible pieces, and explaining highly-specialized experiments in a way the public might find interesting. Research highlighted in the media can become part of a larger…
Austen & Darwin, Love Doctors? A Valentine’s Day/ Darwin Day Tribute
Originally posted on Metathesis:
A few months ago my Google Scholar alert for mate choice turned up a paper not about insect courtship behavior or sexual selection, but Jane Austen.[1] The only time previously I had ever thought about Austen and evolution together was while I wrote lab reports and wished I could watch Pride and…
A Scientist Walks into an English Blog: Language, Gender, Feminism, and the Science of Sex
Originally posted on Metathesis:
I spend my day thinking about sex. Mostly, sex between male and female fruit flies. I am curious about what happens after they finish doing the deed and sperm move through the female reproductive environment on their journey to the egg. Interested in the changes that occur within the female after…
A Genital by Any Other Name …
Originally posted on Molecular Love (and other facts of life):
People are talking about insect genitalia more than ever before, because a paper was published with the title: “Female Penis, Male Vagina”. It was even mentioned on the Colbert Report: Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger 2:48 – 4:28 The Colbert Report 5/7/2014 This sensational…
Idea Spermatheca 