PhD position with Marmorkrebs

A doctoral position to study “Marbled crayfish as a model organism” is available! The position is in Czechia with Antonín Kouba. More information about the position are here.

First Marmorkrebs on Twitter!

Set the wayback machine to a decade ago. Ten years ago, Marmorkrebs debuted on Twitter. The First to Tweet account says:

The first to tweet ‘Marmorkrebs’ was @DoctorZen in 2009!

It is a bit of a cheat, though, since the tweet was about this blog more than Marmorkrebs.

Enjoying that Marmorkrebs.blogspot.com was a finalist for Open Laboratory 2008.

Nominations for 2017 Gherardi Prize

It is once again time to work on applications for the Francesca Gherardi Memorial Prize! You are eligible if:

• You study aquatic invasive species;
• You’re young (less than 40);
• Don’t have a permanent position (a grad student or post-doc, usually)

Applications are due 30 November 2016.
External links

Francesca Gherardi Memorial Prize

TCSERA 2011

Last year, I live-blogged the announcement that Gerhard Scholz had been award The Crustacean Society’s Excellence in Research Award. He was not at the meeting to accept his award, but the latest issue of Journal of Crustacean Biology discusses his research contributions in more detail and allows him to reply. I am pleased to see it does not leave out Marmorkrebs.

In 2003, Gerhard reported the first parthenogenetic decapod, a cambarid crayfish (Marmorkrebs) found in the aquarium trade. It was subsequently shown that these animals originated in Florida, and molecular evidence revealed that they were in fact a form of Procambarus fallax that has established itself in several European countries as well as Madagascar, thus uncovering a harmless pet primed to become a devastating invasive species.

In his comments, Dr. Scholz offers this bon mot:

Life without crustaceans is possible, yet pointless!

Reference

McLay C, Boyko CB, Schram FR. 2012. Gerhard Scholtz Recipient of the Crustacean Society Excellence in Research Award. Journal of Crustacean Biology 32(2):341-344.

Congratulations!

Gerhard Scholtz has just been awarded The Crustacean Society Excellence in Research Award (TCSERA)!

Dr. Scholtz was the first author on the first paper introducing Marmorkrebs to the scientific community, and other Marmorkrebs papers as well.

While Dr. Scholtz has co-authored multiple Marmorkrebs papers, it was mentioned this is just a small fraction of his scientific papers, around one hundred.

Marmorkrebs papers by Gerhard Scholtz

Scholtz G, Braband A, Tolley L, Reimann A, Mittmann B, Lukhaup C, Steuerwald F, Vogt G. 2003. Parthenogenesis in an outsider crayfish. Nature 421(6925): 806-806.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/421806a

Vogt G, Tolley L, Scholtz G. 2004. Life stages and reproductive components of the Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish), the first parthenogenetic decapod crustacean. Journal of Morphology 261(3): 286-311.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/jmor.10250

Alwes F, Scholtz G. 2006. Stages and other aspects of the embryology of the parthenogenetic Marmorkrebs (Decapoda, Reptantia, Astacida). Development Genes and Evolution 216(4): 169-184.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00427-005-0041-8

Braband A, Kawai T, Scholtz G. 2006. The phylogenetic position of the East Asian freshwater crayfish Cambaroides within the Northern Hemisphere Astacoidea (Crustacea, Decapoda, Astacida) based on molecular data. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research 44(1): 17-24.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1439-0469.2005.00338.x

Martin P, Kohlmann K, Scholtz G. 2007. The parthenogenetic Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish) produces genetically uniform offspring. Naturwissenschaften 94(10): 843-846.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0260-0

Kawai T, Scholtz G, Morioka S, Ramanamandimby F, Lukhaup C, Hanamura Y. 2009. Parthenogenetic alien crayfish (Decapoda: cambaridae) spreading in Madagascar. Journal of Crustacean Biology 29(4):562-567.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1651/08-3125.1

Martin P, Dorn N, Kawai T, van der Heiden C, Scholtz G. 2010. The enigmatic Marmorkrebs (marbled crayfish) is the parthenogenetic form of Procambarus fallax (Hagen, 1870). Contributions to Zoology 79(3): 107-118.
http://dpc.uba.uva.nl/ctz/vol79/nr03/art03

Martin P, Shen H, Füller G, Scholtz G. 2010. The first record of the parthenogenetic Marmorkrebs (Decapoda, Astacida, Cambaridae) in the wild in Saxony (Germany) raises the question of its actual threat to European freshwater ecosystems. Aquatic Invasions 5(4): 397–403.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3391/ai.2010.5.4.09

Open Lab 2010 is here!

Now available at Lulu!

Contains my Marmorkrebs essay that originally appeared in the Scientific American guest blog, which is specifically mentioned in these comments.

Open Lab 2010 cover: Won’t this look nice on your shelf?

Andrea Kuszewski and Jason Goldman both were tantalizing that there would be Comics Sans on the cover. But nooooOOOOooo... the big fibbers.

Unveiled at A Blog Around the Clock.

Open Lab 2010

I was astonished to learn that my Sci Am Guest Blog post on Marmorkrebs has been selected for Open Lab 2010! This is the second time a Marmorkrebs post has been featured in the anthology, the first back in the 2008 edition.

I thank Jason Gold and his team of editors for all their hard work, turning out this set of selections in record time! Also thanks to all those who blogged, submitted posts, and congratulations to all those who entries made it in.

Nominate your favourite posts for Open Lab 2010

There is still time to nominate science writing for the fifth annual blogging anthology:





It can be a post that is long and technical.

Or it could be something that is short and whimsical.

Hints aside, please nominate writing from any blog that enjoy. It is a wonderful present to a writer to know a reader thought something he or she did was good.

You can nominate posts from 1 December 2009 until 30 November 2010.

Open Lab 2008 hits town

I got my printed and bound copy of The Open Laboratory 2008 blogging anthology in the mail today. Though I say it myself being a contributor, it looks very nice. The only qualm I have is that the image quality is a little patchy, but being restricted to black and white makes conversion from the colour we’ve come to know on the web understandably problematic. I’m willing to bet that most people didn’t pick graphics for their blog posts with the idea of them being reprinted in a black and white anthology at the end of the year.

Open Laboaratory 2008 now available

The third annual science blogging anthology is now available at Lulu. When you get your copy, you’ll want to turn to page 86.

Additional: In the spirit of openness, I will remind everyone that you can read the book for free by following the links here. Inconvenient compared to a nice, unified, cleanly typeset, high-resolution, portable compilation, if you ask me.

There is, however, another reason to buy the compilation (which is available for immediate download as a PDF as well as a traditional paperback format). Bora writes:

In a few weeks, the book will also be available at other online retailers, e.g., Amazon.com, but we prefer that you buy from Lulu.com as the proceeds will go towards organizing ScienceOnline‘10 next January.

ScienceOnline is a science blogging conference. Next year’s will be the fourth such event. Of course, people blogged about it at length, but a very brief intro to last year’s is here.

Coming attractions

A Blog Around The Clock posted a preview of the cover for The Open Laboratory: The Best In Science Writing on Blogs, The 2008 Edition. As noted previously, it'll feature a post from this blog. It should be available, like the the 2006 and 2007 editions, at Lulu.

Blogrolling

One of the good things about the Open Laboratory competition is that you discover new blogs, of course. I was pleased to find another crustacean blog among the finalists for the Open Laboratory 2008, Dear Blue Lobster. The winning post is "Bloop: A Crustacean Phenomenon?"

I'm also tickled that he had a post about Marmorkrebs last year, which I somehow managed to miss until recently. The post includes a rumour that I have yet to confirm, namely that research is going on in China to aquaculture Marmorkrebs.

(Blue lobster picture from Photo of the month from the Lobster Institute.)

Open Laboratory 2008

Just a quick one before I hit the hay after a wonderful full frantic day at the SICB meeting... A post from this blog, "How Marmorkrebs can make the words a better place," was selected as a finalist for the Open Laboratory 2008.

Put a little love in your heart.