Lost Science is an ongoing series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. The conversations have been edited for clarity and length. Here’s why we’re doing this.
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Interview by Carl Zimmer
Jay Falk: The project that was terminated was on this hummingbird, the white-necked jacobin. The males in this species have a deep blue iridescent head, a bright white belly and a white tail, which they’re constantly spreading and showing off to each other. And the females look very different. They have a mottled gray throat and belly, and then their tail is very dark, almost black. But 20 percent of the females look nearly identical to the males. Why, if you’re a female, would you want to look like a male?
It’s all about access to getting food. They get nectar from flowers. These females that look like males are essentially mimicking the males because they get away with avoiding the aggression from other hummingbirds. They’re pretty vicious.
I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary.
We’ve identified a gene that’s likely responsible for this variation between the two female types. And this is really cool, because you usually don’t find just a single gene like we did. Usually a bunch of different genes are responsible. We found that this gene makes a thyroid hormone. We didn’t think that thyroid hormone could affect such a big change.
My study is just one species, but it’s part of this really big, important field. We know that there’s all this variation in genes, but how exactly do we get from there all the way to what we see in nature? It’s the same question as how our genes affect our health.
The plan was to try to connect all the pieces. If we’re making changes to the thyroid hormone, how does it affect the feather coloration but not the rest of the bird, for example?
It was April 25 when I got the termination email for my postdoctoral research fellowship from the National Science Foundation. I don’t know why my fellowship was terminated. I suspect that it has something to do with studying a species that doesn’t fit the binary of what we expect to see in nature, with completely different males and females.
It’s depressing. I’ve spent so many years on this — at this point it’s been over a decade. Now, I’m in a weird limbo state. No one knows what’s happening. Is it time to leave? Because all the writing on the wall says there’s not really a future here.
Jay Falk is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Colorado who works at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Gamboa, Panama.
Carl Zimmer covers news about science for The Times and writes the Origins column.
The post He Studied Why Some Female Birds Look Like Males appeared first on New York Times.
