Our new paper, coauthored by lab technician and Barnard alum Avigayil Lev ('22), has been published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology! This work, part of a collaboration with Andrew Stewart's lab at Canisius University, uses populations created by Andrew to look at the life history changes associated with >400 generations of artificial selection on body size in Drosophila melanogaster. We found that flies selected for small body size had lower juvenile viability, fecundity, and absolute egg size, but higher relative egg size, than flies selected for large body size. Our findings are consistent with the hypothesis that egg size is a key constraint on body size evolution in this species. Check out Barnard's coverage of this work here. 

In preparation for the Altschul Hall science building renovation, we spent the week relocating to temporary lab spaces in Milbank Hall, where we'll be for the next 2+ years. We put our science on hold to move to these spaces, but we'll be able to start up again this summer! We'll miss the views from Altschul 13 (the penthouse)! 

​Congrats to Ananya Lahiri, Isabella Martinez, and Eliza Tagle, who graduated from Barnard today! Ananya earned a BA in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Eliza earned a BA in Physiological and Organismal Biology, and Izzie earned a BA in Biology and in Women's, Gender, and Sexual Studies! 

Izzie gave her senior thesis research talk today at the 2024 Biology Research Symposium. Her senior thesis work, funded by a Sigma Xi Grant, studied the fitness consequences of variation in mating duration. She began this work as a junior for her Guided Research & Seminar project. Congrats!