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When sharp-eyed 20-year-old Calvin Bridges entered Columbia University in 1909, the word “gene” had just been coined. At that time, the term was profoundly abstract, referring to “factors” or “conditions” that could be glimpsed only through the window of statistical analysis. Seven years later, Bridges and his colleagues had brought these mysterious factors firmly down…

  In 1916, in the very first issue of GENETICS, Calvin Bridges published his proof that genes are carried on chromosomes. One hundred years later, genetics is again at the brink of a major transformation, as efficient genome engineering becomes a reality. During this century of incredible advances, GENETICS, published by the Genetics Society of…

An article in the most recent issue of Science highlights a growing concern about the continued support of the biological databases on which our community depends. Indeed, 2015 GSA President Jasper Rine was quoted as saying these resources are “critical for our daily life as geneticists and biomedical researchers.” Many of the model organism databases (MODs) used…

When I was a little kid and my mom asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up, I would tell her: “I want to be President ––– of the Genetics Society of America”….uh….maybe not. But electoral success came my way anyway. Think of the perks: the fancy house, the private plane, the…

Catch up on 2015’s most popular Community Voices posts! Inherit the Wand: The Genetics of Wizardry in Harry Potter Read about how Eric Spana combines his genetic outreach work with Harry Potter nerdiness. Also, learn how to explain the existence of squibs, given a dominant wizarding gene. Worm CRISPR Workshop at the International C. elegans Meeting Technical tips and progress…

Catch up on 2015’s most popular Education posts! Undergrads power genomics research With 1014 authors, an article by Leung et al. in the May issue of G3 has the largest author list of any paper published in the journal. More than 900 of those authors were undergraduate students when they performed the research. Introducing undergrads to…

Catch up on 2015’s most popular Policy & Advocacy posts! How labor reform might overhaul postdoc pay A proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor could soon mandate that postdocs making less than $50,440 per year will be eligible for overtime pay at 1.5 times their hourly rate. Research labs are generally not prepared…

Catch up on 2015’s most popular Science & Publishing posts! Undergrads power genomics research With 1014 authors, an article by Leung et al. in the May issue of G3 has the largest author list of any paper published in the journal. More than 900 of those authors were undergraduate students when they performed the research. Human…

Many of us have been there: you’ve attended seminars and workshops focused on transforming the way you teach, and you can’t wait to use what you’ve learned. However, examining the evidence behind evidence-based teaching and actually using the evidence-based teaching methods are very different beasts. If you aren’t quite sure how to incorporate active learning…

A proposed rule from the U.S. Department of Labor could soon mandate that postdocs making less than $50,440 per year will be eligible for overtime pay at 1.5 times their hourly rate. Research labs are generally not prepared to track overtime hours and many do not have the additional funds available to pay postdocs above…

  Early this morning, the U.S. House of Representatives released the text of the fiscal year (FY) 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, which would fund the federal government through the end of the current fiscal year on September 30, 2016. The bill includes increases for all of the science agencies of interest to the GSA community:…