S Shakiro Quiñones o evoluciji spolno dimorfne vrste pajkov. #MetaPHoDcast Shakira Quiñones je mlada raziskovalka na Biološkem inštitutu Jovana Hadžija na ZRC SAZU. Doktorat na področju bioznanosti opravlja na Biotehniški fakulteti Univerze v Ljubljani. Shakira preučuje razliko v velikosti med samicami in samci pri vrsti pajkov Nephilingis cruentata. Zanima jo, kateri so selekcijski pritiski, ki vodijo v različno velikost samic in samcev. Samice na primer tehtajo do dva grama, medtem ko samci le dva miligrama. V podkastu pove, da obstaja tudi velika razlika med velikostjo samih samcev. To omogoča testiranje selekcijskih pritiskov pri tej vrsti. Pri tej vrsti pajkov imajo samci največ dve možnosti za oploditev samic, saj jim pri razmnoževanju odpadejo pedipalpi, v katerih prenašajo spermo. A po uspešnem parjenju jim to omogoča lažje branjenje samice – če jih le ta ne poje, saj so lažji in bolj okretni v primerjavi s tistimi samci, ki še niso uspešno oplodili samice. Shakira drugim doktorskim študentkam in študentom priporoča uporabo orodij za bibliografijo, kot sta na primer Mendeley ali Zotero. V poslušanje priporoča podkaste Work Life organizacijskega psihologa Adama Granta, podkast Metamorfoza, ki tako kot mi gostuje na Metini listi, ter ostale dele Meta PHoDcasta. V branje priporoča knjigo Nancy Baron Escape from the Ivory Tower, kjer izveste vse o tem, kako boljše predstavljati znanost. Shakira bi rada bila prisotna v pogovoru med družbenima aktivistkama Mayo Angelou in Greto Thurnberg, če se jima ne bi kar pridružila na večerji. Shakiri lahko sledite tudi na twitterju. ________________________________________________________________________ In conversation with Shakira Quiñones about the evolution of sexual dimorphism in spiders. Shakira Quiñones is a PhD student at the Biological Institute Jovan Hadži, Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Shakira explores sexual dimorphism in a spider species (Nephilingis cruentata). She is interested in how selection pressures affect the size of male spiders. Female spiders can weight up to 2 grams while male spiders only reach 2 milligrams. In the podcast you will hear about her predictions, experiments and how spiders reproduce. In the species, she studies males who can reproduce only two times, since they carry their sperm in pedipalps and leave the whole reproductive organ in the females. This brings them advantages since they become lighter and can fight other males who are still trying to reach the female, but only in the case when the female does not cannibalise them. To other PhD students Shakira recommends using reference managers such as Mendeley or Zotero. She recommends podcast Work Life by organisational psychologist Adam Grant, and a book by Nancy Baron entitled Escape from the Ivory Towers to learn about the best ways to communicate science to a general public. Shakira would love to eavesdrop on a conversation between social activists Maya Angelou and Greta Thurnberg, if not even join them for dinner. You can follow Shakira’s science on her twitter account.