Pyenson Lab

SICB 2012 presentations covered in Science Magazine

More news today, published in this week's print issue of the journal Science. Goldbogen, NDP, Shadwick and Potvin were all featured in a news article describing our research presentations at SICB 2012 in Charleston, two weeks ago. Some great quotes on our work from notable researchers in biomechanics, too.

We also definitely approve of Doug Perrine's glorious Bryde's whale image.

Lab publications freely available on Smithsonian Digital Repository

As part of Smithsonian's continuing mission to share information digitally and freely through open-access, PDFs of Pyenson Lab research articles are being loaded onto SI's Digital Repository (run by SI Libraries), which uses Dspace software to gather and organize research articles by research units within the institution. 

So far, all of the 2010 and most of the 2011 articles are now uploaded. Some articles are freely available from their original publisher as well (e.g., Company of Biologists, Public Library of Science). We will continue to update the list, once publications receive final pagination. We will also be uploading original datasets, in some cases, to Data Dryad, shortly. Stay tuned!

Meetings: SICB 2012

Last week, NDP reunited with colleagues from his postdoctoral days at the University of British Columbia at the 2012 meeting of the Society of Integrative and Comparative Biology in Charleston, South Carolina. The group includes his postdoc advisor, Bob Shadwick, long-time colleague Jeremy Goldbogen, and parachute physicist extraordinaire Jean Potvin. Previously, the gang (known to one another as GPPS) had last met at the 2009 Society of Marine Mammalogy meeting in Québec City, about an hour south of where Jean grew up, and a train ride north from where Nick grew up.

Team GPPS, in front of Potvin et al.'s poster. Left to right: NDP, J. A. Goldbogen, R. E. Shadwick and J.Potvin. (Photo RES via Lars Schmitz).

Since that time, the team (along with many other collaborators) have published a bevy of papers on the biomechanics of lunge-feeding in rorqual whales (a group known as Balaenopteridae), using datasets from morphology, animal-bourne recording devices, and theoretical contributions as well. Check out Jer's website for more. 

At SICB 2012, our group had 2 talks and a poster, presenting our most recent findings. We hope to share more news about collaborative group's findings as our results move through to publication. Stay tuned!