I got word that my latest manuscript with Paul Higgs was accepted. Dear Dr. Collins, Thank you for submitting the revised version of your manuscript to Molecular Biology and Evolution. While you did not take all of the suggestions by the reviewers, I found your response to the reviews to be reasonable and your decision […]

I’ve just returned from the IPY2012 conference in Montréal, which was a very interesting mix of science, culture, and politics. On the Science side, there were lots of great presentations wrapping up years of polar research. I spent a lot of time in the Polar Microbes, Polar Marine Ecosystems, and Polar Terrestrial Ecosystems sessions, but […]

Short course 2: Bioinformatics for geologists Speaker: Dr. R. Eric Collins, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada Date: Tuesday, June 26, 2012 Time: 12h30 – 14h00 Price: Free Short course description: This course is an introduction to bioinformatics – the use of computers to study biological processes via information-carrying molecules like DNA and proteins. We will look […]

I’m in Atlanta, Georgia this week for AbSciCon 2012, one of my favorite scientific conferences. I’ve only missed one since my first in 2000 at NASA Ames, and over the years I’ve seen Astrobiologists evolve into a more confident, more mature community of scientists. This year I’m excited that there are more presentations on Science […]

I recently gave guest lectures in Jon Stone’s “Life in the Universe” course (2LU3) and in Paul Higgs’ “Genomes and Evolution” course (4Y03) at McMaster. For “Life in the Universe” I gave a general overview of the prospects for finding life on Earth and elsewhere in the universe. For “Genomes and Evolution” I talked about […]