scin130 week 2 discussion

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Classmate #1:

Good Evening from Afghanistan,

One very resourceful science based website that I found to talk about is the American Museum of Natural History website. I applied the following metrics of objectivity, accuracy, how current is the information being provided and the credibility of the information. From the website itself, I’ll be analyzing the “Nancy B. Simmons Research Group.”

When it comes to objectivity, I’ll be looking at who is sponsoring the research group, or if the source is mostly unbiased in what information is being put out. It seems that for her research project, it involves “over 30 researchers at over a dozen institutions.” Once I’ve identified the aforementioned, I’d look into the accuracy of the information. What exactly can I read and understand if there are any errors in Dr. Simmon’s research group project. I’d look at references mentioned if any that are also reliable and consistent to the information being put out by her group. It looks like most of her research projects are guided by a collaborative effort by other subject matter experts, whom come together to combine ideas.

Moving forward, I’d identify how current the information is because if the date is years old, then it wouldn’t be relevant. I would also look at how current the sources referenced are. Finally, I’d evaluate the credibility and how reliable the source of information is. A good example would be if the person mentioned is an expert in their field and reports information specific to that field. As reported in the research project, Dr. Simmons is one who’s background yields viable credibility. She “specializes in the morphology and evolutionary biology of bats (Chiroptera). She works with both living and fossil species, and is interested in patterns of species diversification, bio-geography, the evolution of dietary habits, higher-level bat relationships, early Tertiary fossil bats, and the evolution of flight and echolocation. A morphologist by training, she works with data gained from museum specimens and high-resolution CT scans, combining these with DNA sequence data generated by collaborators to build and test phylogenetic and evolutionary hypotheses.”

Additionally, while looking through the website, I noticed that it also had an E library where you can search up articles, journals or books on a certain topic of your choice. Similar to what we have digitally as our library.

Additional Information from Dr. Simmons Research Project

“Dr. Simmons is part of a large team of researchers working with NSF support to build a “Tree of Life” (large-scale phylogeny) for mammalsusing molecular and morphological data collected from representatives of both extant and extinct lineages. This collaborative effort involves over 30 researchers at over a dozen instiutions.”

“Together with Dr. Giannini, Dr. Simmons has been working for several years to complete a data matrix of several hundred morphological characters scored in nearly 100 species representing all major clades of bats. These data will ultimately be combined with mitochondrial and nuclear DNA data from at least 17 genes. With funding of the ATOL-Mammals grant, they have now turned much of their attention to integrating their characters into the larger matrices under development for that project, but the ultimate goals remain the same:to produce well-resolved, well-supported phylogenies that resolve both the place of bats in the mammal tree and relationships among all the major lineages of bats.”

SOURCED CITED

Nancy B. Simmons Research Group: AMNH. (n.d.). Retrieved March 12, 2020, from https://www.amnh.org/research/vertebrate-zoology/m…

Classmate #2:

For this week’s forum, we are asked to select a source of biology information on any topic from the open web and evaluate its credibility. Since we are given the liberty to choose any topic related to Biology, I have decided to go for a source that is related to my research topic, Largemouth Bass. While searching through the web for any information about Largemouth Bass, I found this source called Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS) Database which is under the U.S Geological Survey website. The authors talk about the Largemouth Bass, how to identify them, their size, native range, occurrences in different States, ecology, status and the means/impact of their introduction.

While going through the website, I have seen various factors for it to be considered as a credible source. First of all, it is an official Government website. The information provided by The Nonindigenous Aquatic Species (NAS), which is located at the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, is used by the U.S Geological Survey and is also open for use by biologists, interagency groups and the general public. In addition, the authors namely, Pam Fuller, Scientist Emeritus; Matthew Neilson, Ph.D., Fishery Biologist, and Justin Procopio, Researcher IV who all work for the Wetland and Aquatic Research Center are considered as experts in this field. Also, this source was Peer-Reviewed. Meaning, this source had been scrutinized by other experts in the same field for the purpose of checking the validity and significance of the information provided herein. Additionally, this source also showed that it has been recently revised in 2019. This means that the information is updated based on recent information that the authors have gathered in relevance to the study. Another factor for credibility is that it includes multiple citations referencing other credible sources. This suggests that the authors have done thorough research in order to come up with the information for this source.

Therefore, with the factors being an official Government website, authors as experts in the field, peer-reviewed, recent revision and citation of multiple credible references, I can say that this source is considered to be indeed credible.

Reference:

Fuller, P., Neilson, M., and Procopio, J., 2020, Micropterus salmoides (Lacepède, 1802): U.S. Geological Survey, Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Database, Gainesville, FL, https://nas.er.usgs.gov/queries/factsheet.aspx?SpeciesID=401, Revision Date: 6/21/2019, Peer Review Date: 7/23/2015, Access Date: 3/13/2020

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