Ten simple rules for effective computational research

With the increasing use of computational techniques in the life sciences, a wide range of scientists are finding that software development plays an increasing role in their day-to-day research. In this post Dr Alexander Fletcher discusses a forthcoming article on best practice when developing and using software for scientific research.

Mid-term update

We're halfway through term here in Oxford, and at the WCMB we've had a busy week with excellent talks by Zhuoyi Song and Luca Cardelli. Next week Frits Veerman and Adam McLean are speaking at Monday's group meeting, while Friday's research seminar will be given by David Smith.

Our blog admins have been hit by scheduling delays this week, so there's no new post from us. But why not check out some of our group's very successful individual blogs, The Laughing Mathematician and Cancer Connector.

We've got some exciting posts in the pipeline for the rest of this and next month, and will be back for you all next Sunday.

Hamilton’s haplodiploidy hypothesis and the females who do all the work

In this post Nick Davies, who is doing his DPhil between the WCMB and the Foster lab in Zoology, provides some history on the long-standing question of why worker castes in social colonies of wasps, bees, and ants are exclusively female.

Blabbing about blebbing: Oxford University’s Mathematical Institute conference on membrane dynamics and blebbing, September, 2013.

In this post Dr Thomas Woolley reviews a recent conference he organised in Oxford. Bringing together experimentalists and theoreticians from around the world they had one focus: blebbing cells!  

Poster: Investigating bacterial ecology and evolution in complex environments

Another recent poster from Katharine Coyte, who is doing her DPhil between the WCMB and the Foster lab in Zoology. This poster wan an award at the id2 conference.

21st Century Turing

In this post Dr Thomas Woolley describes one of the original, biggest and most outrageous ideas of mathematical biology. Thomas achieved his doctorate working on mathematical pattern formation within the WCMB in 2012, under the supervision of Prof. Philip Maini, Dr Ruth Baker and Dr Eamonn Gaffney. He is currently a Junior Research Fellow for St John’s College, Oxford and works on the solid mechanics behind cellular motion. However, he still likes to keep an eye on pattern formation. He runs his own mathematical outreach website as well as working as a mathematical consultant on the TV show “Dara O’Briain’s School of Hard Sums”. 

Poster: The fractured bacterium: how horizontal gene transfer and selection divide the genome

Another poster from the DTC 4th year conference, by Rene Niehus who is co-supervised between the WCMB and the Foster lab in the Department of Zoology.