Richard Smith

5,639 reputation

2050

bio	website	phyta.org
	location	Cambridge, UK
	age	27
visits	member for	1 year, 3 months
	seen	13 hours ago
stats	profile views	153

PhD student in Plant Sciences at Cambridge working on dissecting the molecular basis of C4 photosynthesis. Formerly plant biologist, data analyst, bioinformatician and programmer at the Millennium Seed Bank.

My expertise is in plant biology, especially:

Seed biology, dormancy and germination
C4 photosynthesis and carbon fixation/concentrating mechanisms in general
Environmental plant physiology
Molecular biology of plant organogenesis, i.e. organ patterning, auxin, shoot and root branching

I write software in Objective-C and Python, and I have some experience with JS and data vis libraries like the beautiful D3.js, and with R.

If you tag a question with plant-physiology or botany, it will get my attention.

	5,639 reputation	bio	website	phyta.org	visits	member for	1 year, 3 months
2050 badges		location	Cambridge, UK		seen	13 hours ago

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Aug 26	comment	How does a plant decide when to grow a branch? I answered this in some detail in response to another question... biology.stackexchange.com/a/2646/430
Aug 22	comment	Why do cockroaches flip over when they die? I agree, I was just pointing out the the picture doesn't demonstrate anything. The reason, if I remember rightly, is that most cockroach control agents are neurotoxins which cause the legs to spasm, so they get flipped onto their backs.
Aug 22	comment	Why do cockroaches flip over when they die? That's a picture of some cockroaches on their backs. There's no way for the viewer to know whether they died that way, or (as it seems) were arranged that way.
Aug 21	reviewed	Approve suggested edit on What would need to be discovered to prove there is extraterrestrial life?
Aug 14	revised	How many times did life emerge from the ocean? updated reference list to site style
Aug 10	awarded	Nice Question
Aug 8	awarded	Enlightened
Aug 8	awarded	Nice Answer
Aug 5	awarded	Nice Answer
Aug 5	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** @OldCurmudgeon so you're assuming the move to leaf cellulose as a food source must have predated the loss of wings - if not, there was another driver for loss of wings. You're right about one thing: [citation needed] :)
Aug 4	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** That's my point exactly - your arguments for wings being bad for ants either apply equally to wasps/bees and are therefore invalid, or would only apply once ants had lost their wings, and therefore don't explain why they don't all have them.
Aug 3	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** @OldCurmudgeon and all your points about colony living being better without wings are disproven by wasps and bees, which have the same colonial constraints but retain wings throughout their adult life stage.
Aug 3	revised	When is the lactase in lactose-free milk active? fixed a typo, clarify
Aug 3	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** @OldCurmudgeon it wasn't clear until you added that last section that you were only talking about ants; it sounded like you were making general statements about when it's good to have wings and then specialising the case for ants.
Aug 3	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** Also flying could easily improve foraging or hunting success at a greater rate than the increased protein cost of growing and maintain wings. Unless you can provide some referenced support for your reasoning I think I disagree with almost all your points, so -1
Aug 3	comment	*Why don't* all ants have wings?** It could easily be good to have wings when under attack - if you can fly away from a conflict that's a whole extra dimension of escape routes compared to those available to a flightless animal.
Aug 3	comment	Evolution of long necks in giraffes Competition for research? Giraffes must be more advanced than I've been giving them credit for!
Aug 2	revised	Is the theory of evolution being disproved by bats? added 140 characters in body
Aug 2	reviewed	Approve suggested edit on Absorption ratios 260/280 and 260/230 for RNA
Aug 2	comment	Is the theory of evolution being disproved by bats? @Mechanicalsnail yes, but given the asker thought bats' wings were an extra limb, I went for non-technical vocabulary.