by Rose O'Dea

Peruse the website of the Inter-Disciplinary Ecology and Evolution Lab, and you will read that one of Shinichi’s mottos for this group is ‘Think like a scientist and act like one too.’ The way you interpret this motto probably depends on the way you conceptualise a scientist.
 
Perhaps you picture a scientist as someone one who uses critical thinking and rigorous methods to advance human understanding of the way the universe works. This idealised scientist works hard to form reasoned conclusions, trying to avoid the many cognitive biases and logical fallacies that they know they are susceptible to. They are intellectually humble, honest, and value constructive criticism from their peers. They do not hold tightly onto their beliefs, for they are always seeking disconfirming evidence. They are skeptical of authority and anecdote. Nullius in verba — take nobody’s word for it.
 
Or perhaps you have seen how scientists work.
 
Here at I-DEEL we think fondly of that ideal scientist. But our recent lab discussions have focussed on the messy reality of science in practice.
 
For lab meetings we’ve been reading* stories of scientists behaving badly: chasing metrics over answers, using sloppy or unvalidated methods, and ignoring inconvenient evidence. In our idealised vision of science, errors would be quickly caught and corrected. In reality, too many errors go unchecked, and too few rewards are offered for finding them. All this results in a lot of published research that is unreliable and cannot be reproduced.
 
It doesn’t have to be this way. Most scientists want to produce reliable work. They just need the training and the incentives to do so.
 
That’s why, over the last year, myself and other members of I-DEEL have been helping to from the Society for Open, Reliable, and Transparent Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. ‘SORTEE’ was launched last December, as a community-driven effort to improve the way ecological and evolutionary research is done and change the way researchers are evaluated.
 
Work is already underway to hold a virtual SORTEE meeting later this year, and you can join the growing community of nearly 500 SORTEE members by going to https://www.sortee.org/join/.
 
This brings us back to the moto ‘Think like a scientist and act like one too.’ I asked Shinichi why he chose this motto for his lab at the University of Otago, and what he originally meant by it. The answer? He wanted to capture the leap that students take when they first join a research lab: they go from memorising facts prescribed in textbooks, to generating and testing their own ideas, and finding answers to unsolved problems.
 
Now, I-DEEL is trying to use those skills to bring the messy reality of science in practice a little closer to our ideals.

*Recent lab meeting readings:
 
Rigor Mortis: How Sloppy Science Creates Worthless Cures, Crushes Hope, And Wastes Billions
By Richard Harris
https://richardharriswrites.com/
 
The Matter of Facts: Skepticism, Persuasion, and Evidence in Science
By Gareth Leng and Rhodri Ivor Leng
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-matter-of-facts-9780262043885
 
The Art of Statistics: Learning from Data
By David Spiegelhalter
https://www.penguin.com.au/books/the-art-of-statistics-9780241258767

Hanging on to the Edges:Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life
By Daniel Nettle
https://www.openbookpublishers.com/product/842
​

by Cat Vendl

To Sydney for the whales (well, that was at least one of the reasons)
In 2016, I moved to Sydney to start my PhD at the University of New South Wales. My PhD investigated the airway bacteria in whales and dolphins. Sydney is the perfect place to study whales as every year between June and October thousands of majestic humpback whales roam its coastal waters migrating to and from their breeding grounds. I have always been fascinated by whales and the elegant way they move in the water. The whales and I certainly share the excitement for their fluid habitat.

The dark side of whale research
I was quite curious to learn that the population of currently around 30,000 humpback whales passing by Sydney every year was once severely depleted. In the 1970s and 1980s only a few hundred individuals remained. The culprit was easy to spot as the industrial whaling fleets of the 20th century were infamous. However, the more I learned about the issue the more intrigued I became. It wasn’t ‘just whaling’ that almost wiped out the entire population of east Australian humpback whales. What happened there was a brutal yet surprising event in modern history that a world-leading whale expert once called ‘one of the greatest environmental crimes of the 20th century’. The culprits are long dead, but the memory of their crimes lives on.

The text below was originally published in German in Wissenschaft' (Springer Nature, German version of Scientific American). The photos are reproduced with permission from their current owner.
​

References:
Clapham, P. and Ivashchenko, Y., 2009. A whale of a deception. Marine Fisheries Review, 71, pp.44-52.
Clapham, P., Mikhalev, Y., Franklin, W., Paton, D., Baker, C.S., Ivashchenko, Y.V. and Brownell Jr, R.L., 2009. Catches of humpback whales, Megaptera novaeangliae, by the Soviet Union and other nations in the Southern Ocean, 1947–1973.
Ivashchenko, Y.V., Clapham, P.J. and Brownell Jr, R.L., 2011. Soviet illegal whaling: the devil and the details. Marine Fisheries Review, 73, pp.1-19.
Ivashchenko, Y.V. and Clapham, P.J., 2014. Too much is never enough: the cautionary tale of Soviet illegal whaling. Marine Fisheries Review, 76, pp.1-22.
Rocha, R.C., Clapham, P.J. and Ivashchenko, Y.V., 2014. Emptying the oceans: a summary of industrial whaling catches in the 20th century. Marine Fisheries Review, 76, pp.37-48.

by Losia Lagisz

After months of complete or semi-isolation, we were finally able to hold a proper i-deel lab get-together. 

We were super lucky with great wether, food and company and a new fantastic place near the campus – a small, but fancy, park near the new apartments at Newmarket. Some lab members even managed to sneak out to test a giant double super-slide in the playground behind the BBQ spot.

Thanks to Cat and Shinichi for organising, and to everybody for showing up and sharing food, drinks and stories!
​

by Erin Macartney

My first experience of academic related stress was at 13 when I was studying for my first high school exams. Unfortunately, I got so stressed that I couldn’t sit my exams at all. Since then, I have developed a pretty substantial toolbox of stress management techniques that I use almost on a daily basis. These were particularly useful for getting through my PhD mostly stress free. 

While some of these tools may sounds cliché, they have helped me a lot and hopefully they can help you too. 

1) Spend time on time management 

A PhD can seem like an insurmountable task, and even individual chapters can feel like a steep slope to climb. One of my main ways to make big tasks feel less overwhelming is making mountains into molehills. One way to do this is to set goals at different scales. Firstly, break your large goals (e.g., complete a PhD) down into what you want to achieve in a year (e.g., collect data for a chapter and publish a nearly complete one). The next step is to break these goals into a set of smaller milestones. For example, plan out when you want to have a finalised plan for data collection, when you expect data collection to be done by, and set a predicted date to have submitted your manuscript to a journal. After this, it is much easier to break down your days and weeks into small tasks that will help you get you to your milestones and ultimately achieve your bigger goals. 

I have found that setting these daily and weekly goals really helps me switch off at the end of the day or for the weekend by quieting that nagging back-of-the-mind voice telling me that I should be working. 

Note: Ensure that you set realistic goals otherwise you risk increasing stress. Also, life can get in the way sometimes, so don’t be afraid to be flexible and shuffle things around. 

A couple of helpful tools that can help you plan out your time: 

• Todoist lets you plan your week as well as create to-do lists for different projects
• Google Calendar (or any calendar): Use a calendar to plan out your milestones
• A workflow pipeline (see Fonti’s blog post on research pipelines). Your pipeline should have tasks in each quadrant to prevent a ‘blockage’ so that you have a consistent ‘flow’ of chapters/publications

2) Work out when you work best

One of the benefits of doing a PhD is that you can work whenever works for you. Getting to know when you work best and prioritising that time is so helpful in getting the most out of your day (or night) and prevents you from forcing yourself to work hours that aren’t right for you. For example, I concentrate the best as soon as I wake up. Instead of spending my most productive hours getting ready for the day, I make a coffee and generally do some writing or analysis first thing in the morning. After lunch, my brain slows down, so this time is best for lab work. I enjoy reading in the evenings, so this is often a good time to read papers, proofread some writing, or review manuscripts. As you can see, my day doesn’t fit into standard working hours and is broken up into three segments where I can take breaks in the middle to exercise, cook meals, sit in the sun etc. This timeline won’t work for everyone, but my point is to figure out what works best for you and plan your work around that. This will hopefully prevent those hours sitting at your desk being unproductive and feeling guilty. 

3) Find what helps you relax

Everyone needs time in their day to switch off and relax without feeling guilty. Find something that helps you wind down and try to fit that into your daily schedule. This may be doing some cardio to burn off energy, spending time outdoors, watching a trashy TV show, reading a book, having a glass of wine, or mediating etc. This is important for giving yourself a chance to wind-down so you can return to work feeling refreshed. 

If you struggle to turn your brain off, try to make your space as relaxing as possible. I find using an oil burner/candle, dim lighting, and attempting to stay away from screens before bed is helpful (staying away from screens is easier said than done but using ‘bedtime’ mode is quite helpful).

These are some apps and youtube channels that you may find helpful: 

• https://www.youtube.com/user/yogawithadriene
• http://www.c25k.com/
• https://zombiesrungame.com/
• https://www.headspace.com/

4) Talk it out

Having a support network is really important for talking through problems and providing a respite from ruminating thoughts. It’s good to have a balance of friends within academia that understand what you are going through as well as friends and/or family outside of academia that can give you a different perspective. Try to make time for these relationships. 

If you feel like you want professional help or a completely objective ear, these are some options you could use: 

• UNSW counselling service for students
• Benestar UNSW counselling service for staff
• Medicare covers up to 20 free sessions for a majority of psychological practitioners
• PSS may also be an option if you meet the criteria

Just remember that stress is a normal part of life. Figuring out what tools work for you will hopefully make navigating a PhD (and life) a little bit less stressful.  

by Dony Indiarto

Research that you do interests a wider range of people than those who read research journals. - David Lindsay

In a world of short attention span, three-minute thesis (3-MT) is one way of communicating science. Scientists are expected to share their cutting-edge research into a three minutes long talk in plain language so that everyone can understand. This may seem trivial, yet preparing a 3-MT can be a journey to think and reflect on the essence of our work.

At our School (BEES), doing a 3-MT talk is compulsory for every third-year PhD student. I used to think this is as a joke. Most of us have come up with sophisticated analysis and exciting findings to share on the third year, and the School only gives us 3 minutes?!? But I was wrong! Spending a lot of time studying some niche-topics within our discipline could turn us into a 'caveman'. We may have no idea how some concepts that seem intuitive for us can make someone's forehead furrowed.

While some scientists are naturally good at sharing their research to their high-school mates at a local pub, most of us need some considerable preparation. Plus, in this unprecedented time, we have to deliver the talk virtually. Giving a 3-MT talk online may not be as exciting as standing in front of crowds, I believe there are several things we can do to spice up the talk. Here is the short-list I've gathered so far:

1. Narration*
   1. Prepare a video-audio script (as many film students do!)
   2. Identify the highlight of your research.
   3. Tell the audience how you did it!
   4. Plan a storyline; identify the at the hook at the beginning, maybe a joke in the middle, and a punchline at the end.
   5. Identify uncommon words/jargons and replace them with layman's terms whenever possible.
2. Voice
   1. Clear pronunciation has never been this important. Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse!
   2. Adjust your microphone (adjust the freq/pitch), and do a test video call.
   3. Speak like you are in a real conversation. Humans can read better than SIRI!
3. Slides
   1. Be comic sans' ish only when you do it by purpose, otherwise, your slides are ugly.
   2. Sync your slide with the spoken narration
   3. Cut down texts, images/animation should be self-explanatory.
4. Presence**
   1. Maintain eye contact makes the conversation a bit more natural.
   2. Body language remains (e.g. posture and gestures)
   3. Position your camera accordingly, adjust the lighting and the background (again, a test call with friends/colleague can be helpful).

*The utmost important aspect IMHO; **Turned out to be unimportant for the judges in the previous 3-MT Aug 12, 2020.
​
PS: I don't claim any of the point listed above as mine. I've collected these wise suggestions from random chats with friends and colleagues, as well as tips from the judges. All of the suggestions, of course, are subject to criticism.

by Sammy Burke

In June 2020, the International Statistical Ecology Conference (ISEC) moved to a virtual setting (vISEC) as a creative solution to the current travel restrictions presented by the coronavirus. Despite the challenges of a new format, the conference was a resounding success and a wonderful experience. Conference attendance soared over past conferences with more than 850 participants – a statistic attributed to the accessibility of the conference to those with limited means to travel.

Participants and organizers were connected via a Slack workspace which acted as a program guide, Q&A forum, news bulletin, presentation and discussion rooms, and even social centers for chatting over a coffee. This streamlined the user experience, allowing for easy switching between mingling and learning. While this space was available at all hours, activities such as plenary talks and pre-organized social events (including a fun trivia night) were centered around two time slots which allowed for participants in any time zone to have at least one live session they could attend. This international accommodation made the conference incredibly accessible to all.

One of the great perks of conferences is the opportunity to network and meet other researchers in a similar field from other institutions. At in-person conferences, you can naturally introduce fellow lab-members to renowned colleagues during casual interactions. At virtual conferences, you must introduce yourself to someone in a direct message or join a random call with strangers who may have already been chatting for some time. You may find yourself overthinking when the right time is to join in a conversation, or how to smoothly contrive a new connection. These mildly awkward barriers seem to decrease the amount of mingling in “public” spaces.

Time also plays a role in mingling opportunities at virtual conferences. Because participants are spread out across multiple time zones, the people with whom you can chat in real time becomes skewed to those who share your time zone. For example, if you consistently attend the conference at 6pm AEST, you are unlikely to encounter many American researchers who are awake at 4am EST. However, with direct message chat features like those in Slack, you may still be able to reach out to someone with whom you’d like to speak. This feature nearly guarantees the opportunity to ask a question of almost any speaker during the conference, where you may not have gotten the chance to see them across a crowded room at an in-person conference.

I’ve always struggled with planning a schedule at conferences because there are often multiple talks I’d like to attend which occur at the same time or in opposite areas of the conference space. Virtual conferences are the best solution for this – allowing participants to switch easily between talks by simply clicking into a different video. At vISEC, participants were able to watch every talk as they were archived for viewing after the live session ended. This accommodated an international audience, allowing those who would normally be asleep during the live session to still hear it, or to just catch some extra information, at a more convenient time.

Many successes of this conference stemmed from an effective utilization of online services. This includes the “Slack Workspace” service - a website that allows teams to organize communication platforms into channels for different topics or groups. The video communication and streaming services Zoom and YouTube were also utilized for the presentation components. The vISEC organizers generated a virtual conference hub as well as a virtual stage that mirrored a near-normal conference experience for its participants around the globe.

While the virtual conference design format arose from the unprecedented circumstances of 2020’s global pandemic, many successful aspects of this virtual conference may – and probably should – be applied to future conferences. The connectivity, accessibility, and organization were of a high caliber, as were evidenced by the conference’s large attendance and positive reception. We can only guess where this will lead the future of international conferences, and how features of this conference will shape future experiences in science research networking and collaboration.

by Losia Lagisz

Just as humans, individual animals differ in their propensity to see if the glass is “half-full”, or “half-empty”. Animals cannot talk, but they can react to ambiguous situations and cues in a way that suggests expectations of a positive outcome (optimism) or expectations of a negative outcome (pessimism).

For example, when black bowl is associated with sweet food, and white bowl with bitter food, grey bowl would be an ambiguous cue. How would animals react to grey? A spatial version of this test would be placing identical bowls either on the left or right sides of a test chamber, and then checking whether an animal would approach a bowl at intermediate locations.

A “judgement bias test”, based on this phenomenon, is not only a window into animals’ inner lives, but also a potential tool for improving animal welfare and developing new psychoactive medicines. To validate this test’s potential promises, we have recently conducted two meta-analyses (both accepted in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews), collecting results of tests on animals ranging from insects to primates.

The first meta-analysis summarises studies using judgement bias assays as a measure of animal welfare (comparing animals in relatively better and relatively worse conditions/treatments), whereas the second meta-analysis synthesises studies measuring effects of various psychoactive medicines (comparing animals given the drugs to animals given placebo/no drug).

In our meta-analyses, we have shown that “judgement bias test” is valid and widely applicable measure of animal affect in both cases. However, our work has also revealed that the test is not always showing clear or large effect and it needs to be customised for specific species tested.

by Patrice Pottier

Have you ever wondered what physical activity would suit you best? I have, several times. I tried many different sports throughout my life, but I have never been consistent with any of them. 
It was a never-ending quest to find the golden sport, until now... I finally found it! Let's talk about surfing!
 
It might sound trivial from an Australian point-of-view, as most of the population lives not far from the coast, but it's not an activity I had the chance to practice back in France. I always lived far from the coast, and jumped on a surfboard for the first time in Sydney three months ago. It was a revelation.
 
I always wanted to be a surfer. I've been skateboarding for many years when I was a teenager, and always wondered how it would feel to ride waves instead of concrete (hint: it's very different, and a surfboarding background doesn't help as much as I thought).
I really enjoyed skateboarding, but after breaking my arm, twisting my wrist, and harming my hip - it was time to move on. 
 
Surfing now feels like getting back to skateboarding, with the bonus of spending time in the Ocean. I now surf at least 4 times a week, and I feel unimaginably good after each session. It also keeps me fit, which can be challenging with the amazing food scene of Sydney 😄 
 
Most importantly, surfing helps me find a good work-life balance. Without exercising, I tend to work too much and not give enough time for myself, which, in turn, decreases my productivity at work. 
No matter how much you love your work, it shouldn't come at the expense of your mental health. Give yourself time to shut off sometimes, and do something you love! Spending time with your family and friends and giving time for your hobbies will make you happier, and this could only boost your productivity! 
Personally, after one-hour surfing in the morning, I'm ready to kick in at work! 
 
If you're interested about knowing how it feels to ride along waves, I compiled 15 tips to begin your surfing journey:

6. Take your time and don't get tangled with the big dogs 

It is usually a good option to start your surfing experience on the white water. You can learn how to pop up and you will have a ton of fun!

When you feel bored with the white water, transition to small waves - but do not go on the peak with 4+ feet waves! 

​It could be dangerous because you will be surrounded by more experience surfers. You will make a lot of mistakes and you want to avoid being hurt, and hurt someone else. Stay on small waves as long as needed. 
​

7. Get out of the crowds

 If you can, get away from the crowded beaches of the Eastern suburbs. Catching waves will be more challenging and you have a higher chance of getting injured (especially if others don't follow the code). Therefore, less crowded beaches will allow you to progress faster in a safe environment. 
​
If you can't get out of the city (e.g. in the morning before work), try not to go where everybody already is – you can find good spots few meters away.
​

10. Learn how to wipeout (and enjoy it!) 

Surfing is not all about riding waves, but also getting ridden by waves - the Ocean loves to remind us that! 
It's really important to know how to fall and keep calm under the water. Don't panic, the small waves won't hurt you if you keep calm.
​
That may sound slightly weird but, eventually, you will learn to have fun of your wipeouts. It's part of the process!
When you can, fall flat as a crêpe, as far from your surfboard as possible, and you won't get injured 😉 
​

11. Don't be afraid

Surfing comes with its dangers and you have to be mindful of the risks. However, if you play it safe (e.g. know how to fall, follow the rules), you will unlikely be injured. 
​
Don't be intimidated by the waves, they are mostly friendly, especially when you begin with small waves.
 

12. Practice, practice, practice

Surfing is hard, progress is slow, and it can be very frustrated. Even though you might spend hours not catching a single wave, do not give up! With time, you will learn how to read the waves, and your technique will improve - you will get more and more waves. The key is to spend as much time in the water as possible.
​
Sooner than you think, you'll be at the peak, and you'll realize how much you've progressed (and it feels good!)
​

13. Give time for recovery

It's a very demanding sport, and your muscles will let you know that. You will feel as sore as after a huge workout! Although you might be excited to get back in the water, it's also important to give time for your body to recover. 

​It is also a good reason to turn your early alarm off, and sleep in 😉
​

14. Be ready to change your mindset

After few weeks, you will realize your mindset changed. 

​You will never see the water in the same way. While looking at a landscape, your attention may be driven by the waves, you may imagine yourself on them. You may think about your next session at inappropriate moments or dream about surfing - it may become an addiction. However, that's an healthy one so you shouldn't worry too much.
​

​by Losia Lagisz
 
Get right tools for the right jobs. Surprisingly, decision trees are seldom mentioned in the context of systematic reviews / meta-analyses (I will use the latter term thereafter). An obvious application is to use decision trees to streamline screening of hundreds and thousands of publications found in online databases of academic literature.

​It is easiest to imagine them as a list of interlinked questions, where each answers leads you to the next appropriate questions. More formally, they are a structural representation (usually visual) of a series of decisions that have to be made. When screening literature, we need to assess each paper against all our pre-defined inclusion criteria. These criteria, expressed as a series of questions, naturally form a backbone of a linear decision tree. It is easy to build a decision tree if we break our inclusion criteria according to PICO (or similar) components of our research question. Thus, a generic decision tree for screening literature would look like this: