Questions while watching Netflix
In 2022 28% of New Zealand’s total exports and 53% of the forestry exports (by value) went to China. China’s population is predicted to fall by half (some would say crash) by 2100. How do we create...
View ArticleHaving a peek at sheep breeding
One of the cool things about Quantitative Genetics is that it works everywhere. As a forester, I work with trees and my analyses reflect that, accounting for the biological constraints of our species...
View ArticleThe purpose of a system is what it does (POSIWID)
This is a popular* dictum by systems theorist Stafford Beer, pointing out that the self-described purpose of a system (or an organisation) is not the same as its actual purpose. I am often reminded of...
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Become an interfaith polyglot
I have been very busy with the start of the semester, teaching regression modelling. The craziest thing was that the R installation was broken in the three computer labs I was allocated to use. It...
View ArticleBreeding trade-offs
On one side, it is obvious what we should do: increase any of the values in the numerator (selection intensity, accuracy and genetic variability) or reduce the denominator (how long it takes us to...
View ArticleThe best part of LinkedIn
After “professional Twitter’s” demise I joined LinkedIn (less than a year ago) to keep in touch with colleagues. Overall, I like the posts from people I chose to follow and dislike most of the...
View ArticleYou realise that New Zealand is small when…
I was chatting with a colleague (Salvador Gezan) in April about teaching, learning and books, and he suggested “have a look at Rex Bernardo’s book”. I searched for it in my university library, no...
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When heritability is high but the phenotype is dominated by the environment
I was reading a LinkedIn post that said “heritability is the extent to which differences in observed phenotypes can be attributed to genetic differences”. There is this idea floating around assuming...
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Thinking of my diet and climate
I like food. I mean well beyond eating to survive: I do enjoy flavours. Thai is my favourite cuisine but I have a rule: I will try any food that I’m offered at least once. Sometimes the surprise is...
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Time for correlations
A few posts ago I was talking about heritabilities (like here) and it’s time to say something about genetic correlations. This is how I explain correlations to myself or in meetings with colleagues....
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